How to Take an Empire
by LadyDae
Summary: Instead of leaving the Jedi Order, Ahsoka stays and is present for the fallout of her master's fall to the dark side, the fall of the Jedi Order, and the rise of the Empire. But rather than trying to turn Anakin Skywalker from the dark side, Ahsoka decides to help him destroy Darth Sidious and take over the Empire. As a Jedi. They always were better as a team.
1. Part One: Chapter One: Unknown

Merry Christmas! ...To those who celebrate it. I don't, but I wish a Happy Holidays to those who have something to celebrate. I am personally celebrating a month out of school while praying that the 25-page paper I wrote in two days gets me a B-... I think it's a month out of school. I'm not really sure.

Anywho... remember how I said I wasn't at all going to start writing this until next year? I played myself. Badly. That said, I'm going to be spending a lot of next year still writing it. But a commenter gave me the wonderful idea to just go ahead and start posting it as a present? And I was like... that's an idea. Also, this will let me channel my anger at The Rise of Skywalker. Yes. I hated it. No shade to those who liked it.

This story is the promised prequel/sequel to Force Distortion. That said, you don't have to read that story to understand this one. The other story was my playing with the time travel trope. So... I mean, it's up to you if you want to read my last story.

Fair warning this story as a whole gets dark. Emotionally that is. Even I was surprised by the depth of this. Also fair warning for future toxic and unhealthy relationship dynamics but that's Star Wars in a nutshell anyway. And the rating is T for now... I'm pretty sure this is going to get a lot more mature but like 30 chapters from now at least. Expect updates once a week or every two weeks. At least until I've got a good chunk of this written ahead and then we'll get more frequent.

* * *

**Part One  
****Chapter One: Unknown**

She should have been relieved, walking through the halls of the Jedi temple behind her master and back toward their quarters after very nearly being framed and sentenced for a crime she didn't commit and possibly executed. Only possibly because she'd had a few more ideas up her sleeve. Sith. Separatists. Jedi. Republic. Ahsoka wasn't going to let herself be taken out that easily.

Ahsoka resisted the urge to huff. The irony of comparing the Sith and the Separatists to the Jedi and the Republic wasn't lost on her. She'd expect to be framed for a crime, arrested, and tried on flimsy circumstantial evidence at best with no regard for her proclamations of innocence if she'd been captured by the Separatists. But the same treatment from the people she fought and almost died for on a daily basis had blindsided her.

Even now, though the Jedi Council explained it off as passing some grand trial from the Force on the way to becoming a Jedi Knight, Ahsoka was having trouble reconciling everything that had just happened.

She tried unsuccessfully to quiet her mind, to release her feelings and conflict into the Force, but for whatever reason, the Force wouldn't accept it. Almost like it wanted her to take a closer look at where those feelings stemmed from.

As he led them ahead, Anakin was uncharacteristically quiet and contemplative, both physically and in the Force. Like the calm before an ominous storm coming on the horizon. It was hard to be very concerned about it when she was trying to fight her own storm, though.

When they got to their assigned quarters, she practically fell onto the simple couch, belatedly realizing how shaky her legs were. Her entire body was trembling. And she wondered how she'd even made the walk from the Council to get back here; how she was even able to keep her hand clenched around the string of her padawan beads. She'd forgotten they were even in her hand.

Ahsoka stared at the long link of beads that she'd taken back from her master, that she'd refused to put back on in the presence of the Council that not even a day ago condemned her. And the more she looked at them, the more she wondered, did she even want to.

"Ahsoka," Anakin finally said.

Ahsoka didn't respond as she stared at the beads. What did she want right now?

"Ahsoka. Are you okay? Wait a minute. Bad choice of question. Of course, you're not."

Ahsoka looked up at him at that. On any normal occasion—normal for them anyway—she would have shot him a wry look and maybe rolled her eyes because he was so bad at dealing with emotionally charged situations. Same old Anakin. But even that familiarity brought her no comfort. Not when everything else was so unfamiliar to her. Not when the Jedi Temple suddenly didn't feel like home anymore.

"I just…" Anakin groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "Do you want to talk about all this? The last couple of days?"

"Not really," Ahsoka admitted because if she did, she was afraid of what would come out.

"Okay," Anakin said, sounding a little relieved like this wasn't something he felt like unpacking right now either. Ahsoka wished she could smile at that. "When you're ready, I'm here. For now, just get some rest. You're safe now."

That gave her pause. Safe. She supposed she should have felt that way, and a few days ago, she would have agreed with that. But now she felt different about the place that was supposed to be her home. It felt like being on the war front. Always having to be on alert. Not knowing where the next danger was coming from. Skeptical of every stranger with the only ones that could be trusted being the clones and other Jedi. Now, Ahsoka wasn't even sure about that anymore. In that way, it felt worse than being on the war front because this was the one place, the one entity she was supposed to be able to have faith in. And now, she didn't even have that.

"I can't do this," Ahsoka suddenly said as the beads fell out her hand. She would have gotten up to leave right then and there if she wasn't pretty sure her legs were shaking too badly to support her weight.

"Can't do what?" Anakin asked.

"Stay here! Be a Jedi," Ahsoka exclaimed, finding the strength to stand and heading towards the door.

"Wait! Snips!" Anakin maneuvered in front of her and blocked her way. "Ahsoka."

"Get out my way," Ahsoka demanded.

"No. Just… think about this for a minute."

"I have," Ahsoka snapped. "All I've been doing is thinking about this. I don't think I'll ever be able to stop thinking about any of this. Not so long as I'm here. Trapped in these walls."

"You're not trapped."

"Then move," she yelled, trying to push him out of her way, but Anakin stayed as unyielding as ever.

"Ahsoka! It's me," Anakin yelled back.

That gave Ahsoka pause. To an onlooker, she imagined that wouldn't have made any sense, but that accompanied by the soft nudge against their bond meant everything to Ahsoka. This was Skyguy. Skyguy, who had trusted her. Skyguy, who led his own investigation to find out who was behind the temple bombing and framing her after everyone else had abandoned her.

"Ahsoka," Anakin began again, this time quieter and softer, "It's me."

That broke whatever pretense of being rational and in control of her emotions that she was putting on as tears that she'd swallowed over the last few days and that she'd hope she could continue to swallow until she was alone fell from her eyes.

"Hey," Anakin said, immediately pulling her to his chest. "I got you. It's okay."

"It's not okay," Ahsoka snatching away from him. "I can't stay here."

"Ahsoka."

"The Council didn't trust me, so how can I trust myself?"

"What about me? I believe in you."

"I know that. But this isn't about you. I can't stay here any—"

"Then don't stay," Anakin blurted out, causing Ahsoka to stop and momentarily feel like her old self because leave it to her master to be contradictory. Seeming to realize this, he backtracked and added, "At least not permanently. Just hear me out."

Ahsoka really didn't want to, but she supposed she owed him that.

"I'm listening."

He obviously didn't expect that because he floundered, opening and closing his mouth to find the right words now that he had her attention and wasn't trying to stop her from leaving.

"I just… I understand. More than you realize, I understand wanting to walk away from the Order."

"I know," she replied simply. There were a lot of reasons for him to want to leave the Order, but the number one probably had everything to do with a certain Naboo Senator. Neither Padmé nor Anakin was as good at hiding their feelings for each other as they thought. All their close friends knew it.

"But the war needs us. The war needs you. And I get what it feels like to be constantly asked to put your wants and needs aside for everyone else, but when you have powers like we do, it comes with the territory," Anakin said in a bitter tone. "But with you at the war front, we can find Dooku and Grievous and end this war faster. And after that, when we're not fighting a war… I don't know. Maybe… Maybe we can change things in the Order, so what happened to you won't happen to anyone else."

Ahsoka raised an eye marking at Anakin's optimism. If she wasn't buying that idea, there was no way he actually bought that idea. But again, her master was a strange mix of contradictions, holding out hope that he could be a part of the Order and still get everything he wanted outside of it.

"And if nothing changes? If the war ends and I don't want to stick around to see if anything will change?"

"Then leave."

"And you won't try to convince me otherwise. You'll trust that I've thought about it and am making the best decision for me, regardless of what I decide to do. Even if leaving means leaving you too?"

His lack of an immediate answer told Ahsoka exactly what she needed to know. This wasn't about the war. This wasn't about changing the Jedi. This was about him, even though she'd told him it wasn't.

"I…" he trailed off when she narrowed her eyes at him, and he swallowed whatever lie was about to come out his mouth to pacify her. Finally, he admitted, "I can't say I wouldn't be upset about it. But I won't try to convince you otherwise."

She gave him a hard look.

"Much," he added.

She didn't immediately answer, probing the Force for guidance. But her inquiry went unanswered. Whichever way she chose, she'd be walking into the unknown. An unknown future with the Order or an unknown future outside of it. And when faced with silence from the Force and those two unknowns, Ahsoka decided to go with the one thing she did know. Or rather, the one person.

"Fine," Ahsoka finally said. "I'll stay." At Anakin's obvious relief in the Force and in his stance at a crisis averted, Ahsoka said, "But this is only temporary. I need to figure some things out. And if this war or the Order or you stand in my way of doing it, I'm out."

"Ok. That's… fair," Anakin settled on.

Ahsoka picked her beads up off the floor but didn't put it back on yet. She might have decided to stay, but it was going to take a couple of days for her to really accept that.

"Now what?" Ahsoka asked as she looked at the chain of beads, more to herself than to her master, but he answered all the same.

"Now, you're going to go rest. And then after that, we're fast-tracking your Jedi training," her master said with a steel edge in his tone that he normally only reserved when they were headed to or on the battlefield.

"Fast-tracking?"

"Well, this was your great trial, wasn't it?" he replied in a cynical, mocking tone. "The Council was practically handing you knighthood on a silver platter back there out of guilt they don't want to admit to having. I'll be notifying them that we plan to take them up on that."

Where the Force had been silent before, it now began to stir with the promise of… something. Ahsoka wasn't sure what, nor was she sure that it was good or bad, but what she did know is that she'd made a choice. And the Force warned her that if she stayed true to that choice, there was no going back. If she wanted to change her mind, now was the time.

Ahsoka pushed the thought out of her mind. Indecisiveness was what got you killed in battle. And while this wasn't as grave as the war front, Ahsoka wasn't turning back now that she'd made a decision.

"And after that?" she asked.

Her master crossed his arms and smirked, his entire demeanor promising trouble on the horizon.

"You're gonna give the Separatists and the Jedi Council hell, Snips."


	2. Visions

**Chapter Two: Visions**

Between different mission assignments and, recently, Anakin running back and forth between the Chancellor and the High Council, it had been too long and too many near misses since Ahsoka had seen her master. So when she saw him jump out his fighter and begin to make his way across the hanger, Ahsoka decided not to feel guilty about interrupting him.

"Long time, no see, Skyguy," she called out, causing him to stop and turn around.

"Snips," he said in surprise and then smiled. "Way too long. When did you get back?"

Ahsoka shrugged as she walked with him. "Days ago. Not long after you and Obi-wan got back after rescuing the Chancellor. Would have tried to catch up with you earlier, but somebody's been too busy with their new appointment to the High Council," Ahsoka pointed out. "Congrats, by the way."

"Yeah."

Ahsoka fought a frown at his tone. She'd expected him to still be high on the euphoria that such an honor was bestowed on him, but instead, she sensed conflict. Disgust even. Ahsoka wasn't sure through the maelstrom of emotions she was feeling from him. She was used to Anakin wearing his heart on his sleeve and barely controlling his emotions, particularly his temper. But he'd never felt this… Ahsoka couldn't find the word for it.

Finally, he shook his head and said, "You've gone and gotten taller on me."

"Just wait," Ahsoka said, "I'm going to be as tall as you one of these days."

"With or without the montrals?" Anakin asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"They count," Ahsoka said with her arms crossed and a hip cocked, resisting the urge to do something childish like stick her tongue out at him. She'd missed this. "Anyway, I know you're probably busy. And I should probably be getting ready. I got a tip on Maul, and I'm headed to Mandalore in a few days to help the Mandalorians take back the planet." Then she added, "You should see if you can convince the rest of the Council to let you come. It'll be just like old times."

"Maybe."

Maybe was right. Old times were back before they knew that the Council wasn't as infallible to the politics of the war as they'd thought them to be. Or at the very least, before Ahsoka knew it. She had a feeling Anakin had known that for a long time.

"Anakin, are you okay?" Ahsoka decided to ask and tapped on his shields through their old bond. "You seem upset."

Rather than letting her in, he reinforced his shields and said quickly, "I'm fine. I just need to report something to Master Windu."

She didn't want to let it go. Something was telling her not to. But she knew better than to try to pry anything out of her master when he didn't want to talk about something. Still…

"You know, I'm here if you need to talk. When you're ready," she offered, putting a hand on his arm.

In that moment, he let his guard down, and the maelstrom of emotions flickered across his features before he realized what was happening and reined everything back in.

"Can you meet me at Padmé's apartment?"

"When?"

"Now. I mean… not now. At least, I can't go right now. But you can go ahead of me. I'll be right behind you after I report something to Master Windu, and we take care of it."

The promise that Ahsoka felt from the Force almost a year ago when she was trying to decide whether or not to remain a Jedi suddenly felt imminent as a bad feeling settled in her stomach.

"I know you have to get ready for your mission but I just thou—"

"Anakin," Ahsoka said, pushing the bad feeling aside, "I wouldn't have offered to talk if I weren't ready to drop everything to do so. Should I let Padmé know I'm headed that way, or will you?"

"It'll be fine. She's there. And she was complaining about not having seen you in way too long."

"Alright. See you soon then," Ahsoka said as she went to find a speeder. She would brief herself on the situation on Mandalore and start coming up with the outline of a plan later. A plan that was no doubt going to go awry, especially if her master got involved.

She prodded the Force again for an answer to what might be going on with Anakin as she weaved through speeder lanes to Padmé's apartment. But the Force was suspiciously silent, and the bad feeling she'd set aside earlier returned. She pondered why that was so as she took the elevator up to Padmé's penthouse from where she'd parked. Even as clouded by the dark side as the Force had been lately, it usually gave her the answers she sought with enough prodding.

Ahsoka eventually got an answer from laying eyes on Padmé herself after her security escorted her into the apartment to see the woman.

"Ahsoka," Padmé exclaimed as she rushed over to the girl and pulled her into a hug. " It's so good to see you. You've grown so much. You're taller than me now. And you just might catch up to Anakin soon."

If Ahsoka had thought her eyes and the heavy dress the woman wore was deceiving her, the hug removed any doubts. The woman absolutely carried the swell of a pregnancy on her petite frame. And a prodding into the Force revealed a bright but not quite settled Force signature coming from the woman confirmed a second suspicion.

Well, at least now she knew why Skyguy seemed so stressed out. Or part of the reason anyway.

"I wish you'd let me know you were coming. I would have been better prepared and got you those pastries you like so much."

Just the thought of the pastries Padmé was talking about made Ahsoka hum a little. Goodness knew the sweet, fruity bread had no nutritional value to her species, and she'd pay for it in awful lethargy if she overdid it, but Ahsoka couldn't resist. She had a sweet tooth. Probably the result of some very distant human ancestor she might have had. It was good and well that Padmé hadn't had time. Being lethargic was not something she wanted to be when headed out to a mission.

Ahsoka followed Padmé into the sitting area as she said, "I didn't even know I'd be here until Skyguy ran into me a few moments ago. Said we needed to talk about something really important and to meet him here later after he talked to Master Windu about something."

"Glad he's decided to talk to someone," Padmé said as they sat down. "I've been worried about him. He's been distant lately."

"I noticed. He's always been really bad at hiding his emotions, but lately, he seems… unhinged," Ahsoka said, finally finding the word she hadn't been able to while talking to Anakin in the Temple hanger.

"Enough about Anakin, though. We'll deal with that when he gets here. How have you been, Ahsoka? I haven't seen you in months," Padme said absently.

Ahsoka didn't miss the way one of her hands caressed the obvious bulge of her lower stomach. She supposed Skyguy wasn't the only one stressed out about this. She didn't know a lot about Naboo culture, but she was pretty sure Padmé had just as much on the line with her pregnancy, if not more, than Anakin did.

Ahsoka shrugged. "Same as always. The war. A bunch of battles. Jedi politics. That kind of thing." Then she reached over and grabbed Padme's hand, the hand that was still caressing her stomach. Anakin wasn't the only one that seemed to need someone to talk to. "How have you been doing?"

Ahsoka wouldn't outright ask. That's the way it was when it came to things about her master and Padmé. But she'd ask roundabout questions. Questions that obviously had a deeper meaning. Like asking how Padmé was generally doing as a way to ask about her pregnancy. It was too obvious not to ask about it.

"Fine. It's been a long few months, but hopefully, it'll be over soon," Padmé replied even though both women knew her giving birth would only be the beginning. "I'm in good health… I can't seem to convince Anakin of that, though."

Ahsoka knew Padmé well enough to know that was a plea for help. She wouldn't have been so direct about Anakin's involvement otherwise.

"Is this place secure?" Ahsoka asked tentatively.

"Of course, it is. It has to be. Otherwise, our marriage would have been the headlining scandal months ago."

The secret out in the open for today, more than out in the open considering Ahsoka hadn't known Padmé and Anakin were married until now—something she'd ponder later—Ahsoka asked, "What's really going on? Is something wrong with the baby?"

"No," Padmé said, and it sounded like she'd put all her frustration out into that one word. "Nothing's wrong with the baby or me. I've triple checked. But no matter what I tell Anakin, he keeps worrying about those dreams he's been having of me dying in childbirth."

"Dreams?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yes. He started having them a few weeks ago. When I told him I was pregnant. It's all he can think about."

"That makes no sense. A human in the core with your status and access to the best medical care in the galaxy? You'll be fine."

"That's what I've tried to tell him. But he won't listen. He's convinced that if he doesn't do something, I'll die like his mother did. Between that and the tug of war between the Jedi Council and the Chancellor and the pressure on him to end this war… Ahsoka, I'm worried about what it's doing to him. And he won't talk to anyone. Not to me. Not to Obi-wan. The only one he seems to trust is the Chancellor, and I don't know what to do anymore."

That was a lot for Ahsoka to take in. But what she did know was that she understood Anakin's reluctance to talk to anyone. There was Padmé, but it was hard to get people without the Force to understand the panic and urgency that came with having visions that seemed to indicate the future. While Ahsoka didn't think Obi-wan would report Anakin to the Council about him and Padmé—frankly, Ahsoka was sure he knew and was turning a blind eye like everyone else who knew the two—Obi-wan was on the Council. And Anakin always did have trouble separating people from the entities that they were part of.

He might get a few sympathetic ears from the Council, but they might not outweigh the voices of those who would be more concerned that he broke the code and the image of the Jedi Order. And Ahsoka couldn't blame him for his reluctance there. It was hard to be able to trust the Council nowadays when her eyes had been so devastatingly opened to their missteps. She took her assignments from the Council, did her duty in the war, and that was the extent of her caring toward the Order lately. At least until the war was over, and she could figure some things out…

Ahsoka shook her head. This wasn't about her.

Regardless, it was no wonder he only trusted the Chancellor right now. As strange as she always thought their relationship was and as many mixed feelings as she had about the current leader of the Republic, the man asked nothing of Anakin. Nothing of Anakin that he didn't already have some inkling of wanting to do, anyway, from her observations.

"Do you think maybe he'll talk to you?" Padmé asked, snapping Ahsoka out her musings.

"I was assuming that's what he called me over for anyway."

"Perhaps," Padmé muttered as she stood and went to the window that faced the Jedi temple.

Sensing that the woman was done talking, Ahsoka left the older woman to her musings. A few moments later, Ahsoka sat up a little straighter and frowned as she felt a precarious shift in the Force. Like something was teetering on the balance. Not quite danger. But definitely not safety.

She moved to stand next to Padmé in front of the window.

"Everything okay?" Ahsoka asked quietly.

"Yes," Padmé said, shaking her head and moving to sit back down.

There was little to do but wait, so Ahsoka decided now was as good a time as ever to get some meditation done. Maybe she could gain some insight into these visions Anakin was having.

She focused on her breathing and prodded into the Force, imploring it for guidance instead of the silent refusal she'd been getting from it lately. After too long, she was left only with her own uncertainty about what was going on. Frustrated with both herself and the Force, Ahsoka prodded again, this time sending a mental demand.

_Show me!_

To her surprise, the Force gave, but not to show her exactly what she sought. Images flashed before her eyes, and sound filled her montrals. Babies crying. Two younglings in her arms and holding a lek in their small hands as they clung to her. The children a little older and giggling as they watched an older version of herself levitate a toy across the room. One of them, a girl, holding a blaster in her hand and hitting a practice target right on and squealing in excitement as she turned to Ahsoka for validation. And the other, a boy, flying them into some planet's atmosphere while the girl knelt by Ahsoka's side elsewhere on the ship and pain permeated through the Force.

_Mama, can we be Jedi just like you when we grow up?_

The last vision was enough to jolt her out her meditation, but if it weren't, the sharp warning in the Force and Padmé's cry of, "Ahsoka!" certainly did the trick.

"What?" she asked, getting to her feet, hands already on the hilts of her lightsabers.

"The Jedi Temple!"

Ahsoka made her way to where Padmé was standing at the window again, and her heart stopped at the sight of thick plumes of smoke rising from the Jedi Temple. Her first instinct was to jump in her speeder and see what was going on. But if there was anything that she'd learned (somewhat) from being framed and now being a Jedi Knight in her own right, it was to stop and see if she could get a clue what she might be getting into if she had the chance.

"Threepio!" Ahsoka yelled as she made her way to the living room. "Turn to the holo-news!"

It was already on by the time she got to the living room. Live footage from a news-ship flying above the Jedi Temple, surrounded and overrun by clones, with a large breaking news banner scrolling across the bottom.

There were a bunch of talking heads asking speculative questions about what could be going on, but there were no concrete answers. All Ahsoka did know was that with the Jedi spread thin during the war as it was, any Jedi at the Temple didn't stand a chance. She didn't stand a chance if she went. She doubted Anakin could even…

Padmé was already way ahead of her on that one as she got an update from Threepio that Anakin was still at the temple. Ahsoka's gaze locked with Padmé's after she dismissed the droid. For a moment, Padmé tried to maintain her tried and true senatorial gaze before it abruptly crumbled, and she fell into sobs.

"He's fine," Ahsoka said as she gathered the woman in her arms, even though she wasn't exactly sure about that. All she was sure of was that she'd know if he were to die. "Come on. This kind of stress isn't good for the baby. How about you get some rest?"

Padmé didn't reply or even give any indication that she'd heard her as Ahsoka led her to her bedroom. She cried a while longer until she had no more tears to cry and only stared blankly at the ceiling from where she lay on the bed.

"Let me help you get to sleep. Is that okay? I'll let you know if I hear anything," Ahsoka assured.

Padmé barely nodded, and Ahsoka used the Force to coax the woman to release all her tension and relax.

"Ahsoka," Padmé whispered.

"Yeah."

"If something happens to Anakin and me, you'll take care of him. Right?"

Even if Padmé hadn't placed her hand on her stomach, Ahsoka would have known what she meant.

"Nothing's going to happen to you and Anakin."

"But if it does? You'll take care of him? Or make sure he's taken care of? Or her?"

The kind of promise Padmé was asking for wasn't the kind of promise that a Jedi made. It asked Ahsoka to make a commitment that would inevitably interfere with her commitment to the Jedi. Eventually, she'd have to break one of those commitments for the sake of the other.

Friendships, a romantic relationship. Those were one thing. A child was something else entirely.

The look Padmé gave Ahsoka, though, told her the woman would have no rest if she didn't give her an answer. So Ahsoka decided that if she had to pick between those two commitments one day, the choice would be a no brainer.

Ahsoka placed a hand on top of the hand Padmé had on her swollen stomach. "Yeah. I'll take care of the little guy."

Padmé was asleep soon after, without Ahsoka having to resort to a Force encouragement to sleep. She wondered how much sleep Padmé had lost out on worrying about all this.

Ahsoka closed the door behind her and went to sit out on the veranda, hands placed on her lightsabers, because if there had been an attack on the Jedi, Padmé might be in danger. Surely other people had noticed she was pregnant. And if they had, it wouldn't be hard to put two and two together and figure out that her close Jedi friend might be the father.

As she waited, Ahsoka's mind drifted back to the sounds and images the Force had shown to her moments ago. Those children had called her mama when they asked to be Jedi like her. Benign as they had been, those visions scared her more than any vision of death and violence that the Force had shown her before.

Something ominous coming toward the apartment snapped Ahsoka out her musings. She lit her lightsabers while coming to her feet, ready to kill anyone who might threaten Padmé. A hooded figure got out the speeder, and Ahsoka braced herself to meet them head-on until they lowered their hood.

"Skyguy," Ahsoka said as she exhaled in relief and put her lightsabers away. "Thank the Force, you're safe. What's going on? There was an attack on the Jedi temple."

"I know," he said evenly. "Where's Padmé?"

"Resting. I'll go wake her. She was worried about you."

"No," Anakin said, shaking his head. "I don't have time. I have a special assignment on Mustafar from the Chancellor."

"The Chancellor," Ahsoka muttered. "Anakin, what's going on?"

"The Council tried to assassinate the Chancellor."

"No way," Ahsoka said, rolling her eyes. "Be serious. The Council has done some questionable things during the war, but they aren't stupid. Serious. What happened? Was this a Separatist attack?"

"I wish I weren't serious, but I was there. I saved the Chancellor myself. The Order has betrayed the Republic. The Chancellor was forced to send out the order to deal with all the Jedi. They're too big of a threat to be left alive."

"All the Jedi?" Ahsoka asked slowly and then glanced in the direction of the temple. The only ones there were mostly younglings and the few knights that had their primary duties at the temple or were in between missions. Everyone else besides the Temple Guards, for the most part, were spread throughout the galaxy fighting the war. Dread settled in the pit of her stomach.

"What about me?" she asked.

"That depends on where your loyalties lie."

Ahsoka had to have gone crazy. Because that sounded like a threat. From Anakin. Directed toward _her._ The Force whispered a warning, the clearest direction she'd gotten from it all day.

_Tread carefully._

"You know what my priorities are. The Republic. Ending this war. You," Ahsoka stated. Those seemed like things Anakin wouldn't debate her on. "I didn't know anything about this plot until you just told me."

"Good," Anakin replied as he began to pace slowly away from her. "Tell Padmé to wait for me."

"Anakin…" Ahsoka called and then trailed off. She wasn't exactly sure why she called him back. He turned to look at her, and Ahsoka couldn't meet his gaze.

"You trust me. Right, _Snips_?"

Something about the way he said that sent a chill down Ahsoka's spine. Despite her better judgment right then, she answered, "Yes."

"Then, don't worry. I've got a plan. I always do."

With that, he got into his starship and took off. It wasn't until she watched it leave the atmosphere and was headed back into the apartment that Ahsoka realized that she hadn't recognized Anakin's Force signature when he approached.

"Anakin," she muttered. "_What_ did you do?"

* * *

I was absolutely floored by the response this story got upon posting the first chapter. Over 40 follows already! Over 30 favorites already. Most of which came in the first day of posting. Yikes. Hence why I updated a couple of days before I actually planned to. I'll be busy next week anyway. For those of you who read _Force Distortion_, part of this comes from chapter sixteen of that story. Obviously, I fleshed it out a lot more here since, in that alternate universe timeline crossover, it was a flashback being shared.

Also, let me clarify my timeline and the ages of the characters. Canon puts Anakin's age during RotS at roughly twenty-three. Canon also states that Anakin and Ahsoka are five years apart which means according to canon, Ahsoka's eighteen or almost there when Anakin falls. My theory is that when the Clone Wars started, Ahsoka was almost fifteen and spent two and a half-ish years as Anakin's padawan before that whole "The Wrong Jedi" debacle went down. And Rots happens roughly a year after that. So that's my logic. Just wanted to clarify because there was a little confusion in my last story about her age and someone is inevitably going to ask me about it. So that's that.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading. Keep the reviews, favorites, and follows coming. I really appreciate them.


	3. Fall

**Chapter Three: Fall**

"Anakin came by last night," Ahsoka said to Padmé while sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of caf in her hands, having not been able to get to sleep.

"He's okay?" Padmé said as her shoulders sagged in relief as she sat with her.

"Yeah. He's… He's fine," Ahsoka said, though she wasn't sure about that. She hadn't recognized Anakin in the Force last night. She had after a doubletake, after getting past the ominous dark cloud that seemed to mask him. But normally she didn't even need to be paying attention, and she'd recognize the barely controlled, fiery presence in the Force, even when he was trying and failing to hide.

Ahsoka swallowed the nagging feeling she had about that as she continued, "He told me to tell you to wait for him. I think he wanted me to wait for him too. He said he's got a plan."

"A plan for what? Does he know what's going on?"

"He said…"

"Ahsoka," Padmé pleaded, reaching over to put her hand over Ahsoka's.

"He said the Jedi Council tried to assassinate the Chancellor," Ahsoka said slowly, still unable to comprehend the idea.

"No. That's… The Council wouldn't."

"Is it awful that I don't know what to believe? On the one hand, I don't want to think that the Council would do something like that without a good reason," Ahsoka admitted. "But on the other, it's Skyguy. He's never given me a reason not to trust or believe him before when the Council actually has given me a reason. So if he says the Council tried to assassinate the Chancellor, is it bad that even though I don't want to believe that, because it's coming from him, I do?"

"We're clearly missing something important here," Padmé said with furrowed eyebrows. "Do you know what Anakin was going to do?"

"Some special assignment from the Chancellor. Something to do with everything going on, I guess," Ahsoka replied with a shrug.

"Then I suppose maybe the emergency session of the Senate today will shed some light on it," Padmé decided. "Stay here. If the Jedi have been implicated in a plot to assassinate the Chancellor, whether that's true or not, you'll be in danger if you leave. My security will keep you safe. And try to get some rest. You've had a long night."

Staying at Padmé's apartment was easy advice to follow until Ahsoka knew exactly what was going on. But rest eluded her as a tight ball of anxiousness built in her heart that she couldn't release into the Force no matter how much she tried. Maybe because the Force was trying to show her the reason for that anxiety, and she kept refusing to look, especially after the images it had sent her yesterday.

Hours later, Padmé returned, the grim and worried expression on her face doing nothing to comfort Ahsoka.

"Padmé, what?" Ahsoka demanded without any greeting.

"The Chancellor said that the Council tried to assassinate him. He presented hours and hours of evidence about how the Jedi were plotting to use the war to overthrow him, take over the Republic, and force their beliefs and way of life on us," Padmé said pursing her lips and shaking her head the more she spoke.

"No way. The Jedi are sworn to protect the galaxy and the Republic," Ahsoka said with a disbelieving laugh. It was the reason she was at odds with the Council in the first place. In trying to protect and secure the rest of the galaxy, they were taking greater risks that put their own in the line of fire and made them unnecessary collateral damage.

"I know that. Anyone with close ties to the Jedi would know that. But Palpatine's so popular and charismatic that most of the Senate will believe anything that comes out his mouth. A lot of people think this war is the Jedi's fault. He's declared them traitors to the Republic and said they're too great a threat to be left alive."

"That's not fair. There has to be someone willing to speak out against this."

Padmé shook her head. "Ahsoka, Palpatine declared the Republic will be reorganized into a Galactic Empire, and the Senate applauded him. Even if anyone wanted to speak out, they wouldn't have the support. And even if we did have the support in the Senate, Palpatine controls everything. The Senate, the courts, the military. He's been building his Empire the whole time. Now he's just making it official. If anyone took advantage of the war to take over the Republic, it was Palpatine. He just followed laws put in place to protect the Republic in an emergency to do it."

"Then the Jedi are just scapegoats. Palpatine's been setting the Jedi up for this," Ahsoka muttered. In hindsight, even not knowing the specifics about how he pulled this off and got the clones to turn against the Jedi they fought side by side with, this had the makings of a setup written all over it. And for whatever reason, no one could see it.

Ahsoka's conversation with Anakin came back to her.

"That idiot," she declared as she stood to her feet.

Personal issues with the Order lately aside, she at least knew that they weren't capable of what they were accused. But Anakin would find a way to convince himself they were, especially when asked to believe the Chancellor, his friend, and the Council, who he'd been at odds with before. He was pretty bad at putting his personal feelings aside. It was both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness.

"Do you know if your security has a small fighter I can use?" Ahsoka asked as she whipped around to face Padmé.

"Yes. Where are you going?"

"To Mustafar," Ahsoka growled.

"What's on Mustafar?"

"Skyguy. We're going to have that talk he owes me. And once I talk some sense into him, I'm going to try not to kill him."

"Ahsoka…"

"Don't worry," Ahsoka said with a small grin as she playfully bared one of her sharp canines. It didn't bring Padmé much comfort, but the woman smiled a little anyway. "I won't rough him up too bad."

"Be careful."

"I always try."

* * *

"I really hate this planet," Ahsoka muttered as she touched down on the landing pad near Anakin's fighter, where Artoo was still perched.

"Hey, buddy," Ahsoka said, making her way over to the little droid who immediately began a series of beeps that Ahsoka couldn't fully understand. She got the sentiment, though. He was worried about Anakin.

"I know," she replied, affectionally patting him on his dome. "Me too. I'm going to talk to him."

Another series of beeps that Ahsoka figured meant something along the lines of "be careful." She wasn't sure if Artoo meant be careful because of the planet or because of Anakin. She really didn't want it to be the latter, she thought to herself as she made her way to the facility, walking along the long railed paths to where Anakin was standing outside it. She ignored the cloud of very recent death present in the Force.

"Ahsoka," Anakin said in an even tone.

She probed him in the Force to get a read on him only to snatch back the mental hand when she found a black empty void where their bond should be. It wasn't gone, exactly, but impossible for her to access. Before she could ask about it, he spoke to her.

"Leave it to you to do the exact opposite of what it was I asked you to do."

Even though his tone lacked the easy, relaxed teasing that it usually had or even the resigned exasperation that was common when she still his padawan, Ahsoka decided to go with the routine anyway.

"Gotta say," Ahsoka said as she looked at the lava river. "It's not exactly the worst view I've ever seen."

She stayed silent as they watched the lava rivers flow. Though Ahsoka knew that they were both avoiding the real reason that she had come here, there was something morbidly fascinating about the lava rivers.

Finally, she asked, "What's really going? And don't lie to me. Don't leave anything out. What's this plan?"

"Chancellor Palpatine."

"I don't really want to hear anything about the Chancellor, Anakin." She wanted to hear his opinion on all this. Not the things the Chancellor had told him that she'd already decided for herself were lies.

He ignored her and continued, "He's the Sith Lord the Jedi were looking for."

Of all the things she had been expecting, that wasn't one of them. But it made sense. If the Chancellor were the Sith Lord, no wonder the Jedi tried to kill him. It was an assassination attempt, from a certain point of view. Though, that didn't make it true that there had been some bigger plot to overthrow Palpatine and take over the Republic that all the Jedi were somehow complicit in. Ahsoka started to ask when he'd found that out until his words really dawned on her. If Palpatine were the Sith Lord, and Anakin knew that and had been there during the attempt to kill him, and Palpatine was still alive while Anakin was on a special mission for him…

"You didn't," Ahsoka asked, turning to him, her voice barely above a whisper. But she already knew.

She hadn't recognized him in the Force back on Coruscant. She'd thought he was an enemy because of how dark he'd been. She hardly recognized him in the Force now, even with the Force and the little she could sense from him in their bond confirming his identity. This was why she hadn't been able to release her anxiety earlier. The Force wanted her to put together a picture that she didn't want to fathom.

He didn't reply, and that was answer enough for Ahsoka.

Ahsoka opened her mouth to say something several times but was too stunned to get a coherent thought out. Finally, she managed to ask, "Are you insane? The Sith are evil."

"From whose point of view? The Jedi that tried to take over the Republic?"

"Are you listening to yourself? You don't really believe that. The Jedi would do a lot of messed up things, but nowhere near that. The Chancellor's the one that just turned the Republic into an empire."

"They were holding me back," Anakin replied, ignoring the question. "I am now more powerful than any Jedi."

"So what are you going to do? Kill me too? I am a Jedi."

"No. You're part of the plan."

"What plan?"

"To overthrow the Chancellor now that he's shown me my true powers."

Before Ahsoka could reply, both of them were distracted by a Naboo skiff landing on the pad.

"What's Padmé doing here?" he asked, voicing Ahsoka's exact thoughts aloud as he ran to meet her.

Ahsoka followed. Maybe if she couldn't talk any sense into Anakin, Padmé could.

"I was so worried about you," Padmé was saying as Ahsoka approached them.

It felt like she was intruding on something very intimate and personal, but Ahsoka couldn't stop the nagging feeling in the Force that she needed to be right here with them.

"Obi-wan told me terrible things."

"What things?" Anakin asked.

"He said that you turned to the dark side," Padme replied. Somehow, hearing that out of Padme's mouth and knowing it was Obi-wan who told her made what Ahsoka knew but hadn't even dared to speak more real. "That you killed younglings."

The disbelief and confusion on Padmé's expression, along with the desperate need to hear that she'd been lied to, mirrored Ahsoka's feelings in that moment. Kriff an intimate moment.

"Anakin," she said from behind. "Younglings?"

He didn't answer, but Ahsoka didn't need him to. He'd told her _all _the Jedi. All the Jedi except her. Even now he was twisting the instructions of his new master. The thought didn't bode well to her.

"Obi-wan is trying to turn you against me," Anakin insisted.

"He cares about us."

"Us?"

"He knows. He wants to help you," Padmé insisted. "Anakin, all I want is your love."

"Love won't save you, Padmé. Only my new powers can do that."

"At what cost? You're a good person. Don't do this."

"I won't lose you the way I lost my mother. I've become more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of, and I've done it for you. To protect you," Anakin insisted.

"Come away with me. Help me raise our child. Leave everything else behind while we still can."

"Don't you see, we don't have to run away anymore. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the Chancellor. I can overthrow him, and together you and I can rule the galaxy. Make things the way we want them to be."

Padmé's face paled at Anakin's declaration, and she slowly began to back away from him in dawning horror of the reality of what Anakin had become. The same horror that Ahsoka had been grappling with since she spoke to Anakin at Padmé's apartment.

"I don't believe what I'm hearing… Obi-wan was right. You've changed."

"I don't want to hear any more about Obi-wan. The Jedi turned against me. Don't you turn against me."

"I don't know you anymore!" Padmé cried, shaking her head. "Anakin, you're breaking my heart. I love you, but you're going down a path I can't follow."

"Because of Obi-wan."

"Because of what you've done! What you plan to do. Stop. Stop now. Come back. I love you," Padmé said.

Ahsoka clung onto just enough hope that Padmé's desperate plea had gotten through to Anakin and started to approach to help back the woman up. They'd get off this hot planet and go somewhere far away from Coruscant and the Empire and let Anakin cool his head. Force knew he'd be a mess once he realized what he'd done, but-

"Liar!" Anakin yelled.

Ahsoka exchanged a confused look with Padmé, and they both followed Anakin's gaze to the top of her ship's ramp where Obi-wan was standing.

"No!" Padmé yelled, looking between Obi-wan and Anakin.

"You're with him! You brought him here to kill me."

"No! Anakin. I swear. I…"

A warning in the Force was all Ahsoka needed to close the distance between herself and Anakin to try to get him to to hear Padmé out. But as she was reaching out her hand to him, he'd lifted his own in Padmé's direction, and Padmé grabbed at her throat as she began to choke.

"Anakin, let her go," Ahsoka exclaimed as she realized what was happening. When he didn't stop, she yelled, "Anakin! Stop!"

Padmé continued to shake her head as much as she could, her eyes watering as she said, "Ani…"

"Let. Her. Go," Obi-wan said deliberately as he came down the ramp.

Ahsoka barely made it over to Padmé in time to catch her before she fell onto the hard landing pad and ignored the exchange going on between the other two Jedi as she slowly lowered Padmé to the ground to make sure the woman was still breathing. There were faint marks on the woman's neck that would surely become swollen bruises later, but her pulse was fine, her lifeforce still vibrant. Anakin hadn't killed her.

Ahsoka couldn't believe she had to reassure herself of that.

"Don't make me kill you," she heard Anakin said to Obi-wan, which made her stand.

"Anakin. My allegiance is to the Republic. To Democracy!"

"Stop it," Ahsoka said as she stood protectively next to Padmé's unconscious form on the ground. "Both of you." Then she turned to Obi-wan because she'd have better luck getting some sense into him first before she could get through to Anakin right now. "Obi-wan, we might still be able to bring him back."

Both men ignored her.

"If you're not with me, then you're against me."

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes. I will do what I must."

"You will try," Anakin said as he made the first move against Obi-wan.

"They're going to kill each other," Ahsoka muttered, the words falling from her lips without thought as she watched them quickly disappear across the bridge and into the facility.

Ignoring Jedi instincts to follow them, she knelt to check on Padmé once again, lifted the woman off the ground, and took her to her ship. Once she had the woman lying comfortably in a small room of the ship, Ahsoka mentally debated what to do next. Padmé answered that question for her.

"Ahsoka. Where's Anakin and Obi-wan?" she asked, barely above a whisper.

"Don't worry about that. We've got to get you somewhere safe," Ahsoka decided.

Padmé shook her head and took a deep breath. "Ahsoka. Stop them. There's still good in him."

She lost consciousness after that. But, of course, Padmé was still worried about the man who had just tried to strangle her. And right up until Anakin tried to strangle Padmé, Ahsoka might have been positive about there being good in him. Still… she owed it to Padmé to try.

"I am absolutely going to maim him if we make it through this alive," Ahsoka growled as she left the ship, and with Artoo's direction, went to find Obi-wan and Anakin before they killed each other. She'd like to think they wouldn't, but if Ahsoka was truthful, this fight was a long time coming. So many things they'd swept under the rug. So many things they just didn't talk about. Hopefully, she got to them before either of them hurt each other too badly.

She found them coming down the lava river, dueling on a small platform headed to the bank.

"I never want them to call anyone reckless again. Fighting on a lava river. Seriously?" Ahsoka muttered as they got closer.

And then, Obi-wan saw the bank and saw her standing on it. He flipped into the air and landed a little ways away from her.

"It's over, Anakin. I have the high ground."

"You underestimate my powers."

"Anakin, no," Ahsoka cried at the same time as Obi-wan said, "Don't try it."

"Obi-wan. Don't," Ahsoka yelled as Anakin flipped through the air to try to launch himself over Obi-wan.

She tackled Obi-wan before his lightsaber could connect with Anakin. They both tumbled onto the hot ground, and before Ahsoka could assess what was going on, the Force whispered a warning, the clearest direction that she'd gotten from it since this whole thing began. She let it direct her, following years of training and instincts as both her lightsabers flew to her hand. She blocked the oncoming blow meant for Obi-wan with one saber and struck in an opening in Anakin's defense with the other, slashing diagonally down his neck and the middle of his chest before Force pushing him backward on the bank.

Her lightsabers fell from her hands as soon as she realized what she'd done. Obi-wan was saying something to Anakin as he took choked breaths on the bank of the lava river, but she couldn't hear him as the gravity of what she'd done hit her. That strike was a killing blow.

"Anakin," she managed as she started to crawl over to him, unable to pick herself up off the ground. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

Never mind that he'd turned to the dark side.

Never mind that he'd killed younglings.

Never mind that he'd hurt Padmé.

His reply was a raging scream of anger and hate that radiated through the Force and made Ahsoka stop her approach. She felt Obi-wan lift her off the ground while saying, "Come, Ahsoka. We have to go. Palpatine's coming."

She didn't even fight him as she let him lead her back to Padmé's ship. Only a warning at the edge of her senses snapped her out of her stupor, causing Ahsoka and Obi-wan to look up and see the Palpatine's ship entering the atmosphere.

"Go," Obi-wan said to her, handing her the lightsabers she'd dropped moments before. "I'll hold them off in the fighter while you get away."

"But what about you?"

"Go. Get Padmé somewhere safe."

Ahsoka nodded, not having enough time to ask where, managing to set her conflicted feelings aside to quickly get her and Padmé off-planet and into hyperspace before the Palpatine could send anyone after them. Once they were safely in hyperspace, Ahsoka went to check on her.

"Ahsoka," Padmé whispered, coming to consciousness as Ahsoka stood over her. "Is Anakin alright?"

Ahsoka couldn't bring herself to be in the same room with her after that.

* * *

**AN: **The next chapter is gut-wrenching. In fact, the next few chapters are really angsty, and I put our favorite girl through a lot. But it'll get better... ish. At some point. Also, in the next chapter, I absolutely divert from canon, and things get even more interesting.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading. Keep the reviews, favorites, and follows coming. I really appreciate them.


	4. Mama

**Chapter Four: Mama**

Ahsoka would belatedly realize that medics were probably used to belligerent family members making a scene when they were told that their loved one probably wouldn't make it. So, of course, when the short sentient whose species Ahsoka wasn't sure of informed her that for whatever reason Padmé was dying, he wasn't intimidated by her towering over him.

"What do you mean you're losing her?" she demanded. "She was fine after the attack. I only brought her here to check on the baby. She…"

Ahsoka trailed off, trying to reign in her emotions. Even on this neutral backwater planet that she'd already forgotten the name of, it was dangerous for her to attract attention to herself. No one would care that she was seconds from falling apart right now.

"I understand," the medic said stoically. "We might still be able to save her. But regardless, we'll have to work quickly if we're going to save the babies. And since she's delirious right now, I need you as the spouse to consent to inducing her labor."

"I'm not…" Ahsoka trailed off as she remembered that she had indeed told the staff that Padmé was her wife and that they were refugees, displaced by the war. And that they'd run into trouble fleeing their once prosperous planet that resulted in Padmé being attacked. Ahsoka didn't know if they'd taken pity on her or the Force suggestion behind the words made them immediately take Padmé back without asking for any papers or identification. That or the fact that Ahsoka carrying an unconscious pregnant woman was more pressing.

Ahsoka started to answer before her mind registered something the medic said.

"Babies?"

"You didn't know? She's carrying twins."

Apparently, the Force just wasn't done messing with her today.

"Do whatever you have to," Ahsoka said with an absent hand gesture.

The medic nodded and went back into the room while Ahsoka slid down the wall, trying and failing to set her feelings about all this aside. She had to keep it together and figure out what to do next. She needed help.

Obi-wan was out of the question since there was no telling if he'd gotten away from the Empire. She wasn't sure if there were any other surviving Jedi. She had a lot of contacts, but there was no telling if they were in league with the new Emperor and his Empire so she couldn't trust them. Even if she could, how could she be sure that any message she sent wouldn't be intercepted?

_Anakin would have known a way._

The thought came to her unbidden, and Ahsoka shook it from her head. She wasn't ready to unpack her feelings about that right now.

There was no one to reach out to. And if Padmé... If what the medic said was true, Ahsoka wouldn't even have Padmé to guide them through this. For the first time in her life, Ahsoka was truly without any backup.

"Ma'am," the medic said, coming out to get her sometime later. "We're ready."

Ahsoka started to ask for what until she remembered that Padmé was about to give birth, and the medic thought she was her spouse and would want to be by her side. Truthfully, she wanted to tell the medic no, and she started to until she heard Padmé cry out.

"Ani!"

She picked herself up and made her way into the room to the woman's side. Ahsoka would deal with everything else later. Right now, in this moment, Padmé needed her.

"Hey. It's okay. I'm here," Ahsoka muttered as she rested her forehead against Padmé's, hoping Padmé understood that she meant someone was here, if not the one she was calling. But she couldn't blow the impromptu cover she'd come up with.

Ahsoka pulled away, and Padmé started to say something before she cried out again, reaching to take Ahsoka's hand. Shortly after, the sound of a baby crying followed.

"A boy," the medic said, handing the child off to his human assistant to be cleaned and wrapped up.

"Luke," Padmé muttered, her eyes weakly following the form the boy before they lit up in pain, and she let out another choked sob.

"A girl," the medic said.

"Leia," Padmé breathed, smiling faintly as the assistant took the baby to join her brother off to the side of the room.

"She's got Skyguy's lungs," Ahsoka said weakly with a small smile. Though she sensed the woman's faint amusement through the cloud of death overcoming her, Padmé didn't smile back.

"Come on, Padmé. The twins need you. They need their mother," Ahsoka all but begged. Then, before she could stop herself, she muttered, "I need you. I don't know what to do."

"I can't…" Padmé's eyes began to flutter closed. She swallowed and said firmly, "Ahsoka, there's good in him. I know. I know there's… still…"

Her head fell to the side, and the Force confirmed her death long before the medics finally did moments later.

Ahsoka moved on autopilot after that, following the assistant as she rolled Luke and Leia out the room. Neither were crying but were reaching out with their subconscious into the Force for something. Ahsoka wasn't sure what. Maybe all Force-sensitive children, especially ones as bright as Luke and Leia, instinctively reached out like this to get an initial feel for the universe they'd been brought into. Ahsoka didn't know. She'd never been around a newborn, Force-sensitive child.

"Ma'am."

Ahsoka blinked out her thoughts, realizing she was now standing in some kind of makeshift nursery. Force, she was really going to have to stop spacing out like that.

"I know this is hard for you. It always is with things like this," the assistant said sympathetically. "But do you want to hold them? It might help."

Ahsoka paused, wondering exactly what a grieving spouse in her situation would do before shrugging and deciding that holding the twins wouldn't hurt. The assistant nodded with a smile and left the room before returning with a large chair that she directed Ahsoka to sit in before picking up Luke and resting him in the crook of Ahsoka's right arm. Once the woman was sure Ahsoka had him supported, she went and grabbed Leia before setting her in Ahsoka's left arm.

"There," the assistant said and then added, "I'll give you a little time to bond with them," and left the room.

Now left alone with them, Ahsoka had to close her eyes to combat the grief that overcame her at the realization that she was the first person to hold the two in her arms like this instead of Padmé or Anakin.

_There's good in him._

Ahsoka huffed. She wasn't particularly sure about that, but what she was sure of was that these children in her arms were all that was left of the good man Anakin Skywalker had been, regardless.

"Don't worry," Ahsoka muttered as she looked down at them. "I'll protect you. I'll figure something out. I promised your mother I would."

Leia opened her eyes then, peering up at Ahsoka like she was trying to figure something out, though Ahsoka was sure she was projecting that on the girl. She felt the child again instinctively reach out in the Force, her subconscious grasping for something… grasping… for her, Ahsoka realized. She was trying to… bond with her. Not just Leia. Luke too.

_Mama, can we be Jedi just like you when we grow up?_

The realization crashed into her awareness, temporarily making her forget her conflict and grief. So that's what the Force had been trying to show her? And just as soon as she'd thought it, rather than the intense sorrow and conflict, rage and hatred entered her heart at the man who should be here but wasn't; whose actions resulted in his wife's death and left Ahsoka in a position where the Force was offering her some consolation prize for her suffering.

"No," Ahsoka said aloud, closing herself off from the twins, refusing to meet their mental grasping back.

As though the Force was laughing at her refusal, just in case Ahsoka wasn't clear, the assistant came back into the room and asked, "Did mommy and babies get in some good bonding time before babies' first bottles?"

Kriff Anakin Skywalker.

* * *

Padmé's Naboo Skiff was too flashy and would certainly attract attention if Ahsoka dared use it for her flight from the empire. So Ahsoka decided to sell it. But first, she did a thorough search of the ship for anything useful. Trust Padmé to have some emergency Republic credits (probably imperial credits by now) and a couple of blasters on hand. She'd also decided it wouldn't hurt to check the closet, doubting that she'd find anything for practical use. She was right. The only things there were some extra sets of expensive senatorial robes and an old dark cloak.

Ahsoka paused at the cloak because it was certainly not something Padmé would have worn and much too big for the petite woman. Then it dawned on her that this was one of Anakin's cloaks. She ignored the sting in her chest as she started to close the closet. Jedi weren't sentimental. Then she paused and rolled her eyes before opening the closet again and taking the cloak and a couple of Padmé's robes. It was practical. She had two human babies to take care of, and space was cold. The cloak would provide extra warmth for them. Besides, as far as she knew, she was the last Jedi left standing. The bright, comforting warmth where she usually found the presence of the Jedi was now a dark void. There was no one left to accuse her of being sentimental.

She pawned the Skiff off for far fewer credits than what it was likely worth and a beat-up ship that, while crude, a cursory glance at the engines and mechanical work proved would get her where she needed to go… though stars knew Ahsoka wasn't sure where that was. Besides, more than the credits, she needed the buyer's silence, and a meaningful glance told Ahsoka that's what she'd get. Likely the Naboo would investigate and confiscate the Skiff anyway once they received her message about Padmé's death. But if Ahsoka knew anything about the woman's homeworld, they'd compensate the buyer for the loss.

Finally, she stuffed old crates with warm blankets that she pawned from the medical center to make makeshift cribs and erased and mind tricked away any record of the twins' birth or of her being there.

Ahsoka got off-planet with little trouble after that. She was just starting to think this was going a lot easier than she thought it was going to be when one of the twins began to cry. The next hour was spent trying to figure out exactly what was wrong with Leia, but when she finally figured it out, Luke started to cry.

It didn't get much better from there.

For all that she commanded troops and keep her cool in the chaos of the battlefield and fights against Sith, Ahsoka was extremely out of her depth taking care of Luke and Leia. Not only did they seem to cry all the time, but Ahsoka was quickly figuring out that taking care of two infants required a lot of time, care, and supplies. While the medical center had, thankfully, had human milk formula in heavy supply and Ahsoka wouldn't be running out any time soon, she was in short supply of water. Quickly, it was becoming apparent that they couldn't live on a ship forever. They had to find somewhere, if only temporarily, to go.

It was hard to look into that with what limited resources were available in the navi-computer on the ship, when every time she started to get an idea, a crying twin interrupted her. Threepio tried to be helpful by helping her feed the twins sometimes, but they didn't appreciate his cold metal hands and preferred lying against Ahsoka's warm body instead.

Eventually, she had no choice but to temporarily stop on a small uninhabited moon that had a large clean source of water she could use while planning her next move. It solved the problem of needing water for now, but it didn't solve the problem of the two-standard-week-old infants' near-constant crying and distress. If Ahsoka didn't find a way to keep them calm, it would only be a matter of time before Sidious and the Empire found them. And the fact that they kept unconsciously reaching out to her in the Force didn't help matters.

"Stop doing that," she finally snapped to the two whimpering children after two cautious days on the moon as she tried to research what planets they could settle on a little more permanently. They were reaching out to her again. "I'm _not _your mother!"

That caused them both to begin crying, which made Ahsoka even more frustrated than she already was.

"Perhaps you should try—"

"Shut up, Threepio!" Ahsoka yelled as she rounded on him. "I've tried everything, and your ramblings aren't helpful. So shut the hell up!"

Threepio instantly shut his mouth and suddenly feeling trapped in the ship, Ahsoka groaned before growling, "Sorry. I just… Watch them. I need some air."

Ahsoka made her way out the ship and into the crisp air of the cold moon. She looked around, having the desperate need to destroy something. But there was nothing except the sparkling clear lake, the sandy and rocky shore, and her ship that even in her frustration and rage, Ahsoka had enough sense not to damage so they wouldn't be stuck on this rock.

It wasn't enough to destroy the Order, the only home she'd had, though it hadn't felt like home for the past year or so. It wasn't enough to turn the clones against the Jedi. It wasn't even enough to strangle his wife, separate her from Obi-wan, and send her on the run with his newborn twin children. But somehow, Anakin Skywalker had even managed from afar to deny her anything to take her rage out on.

"Damn you, Skyguy," Ahsoka said, kicking at the dirt as angry tears came to her eyes, and despite her best efforts to keep them in, they fell.

She supposed turning to the dark side was already a damnation, so even if her words had that kind of power, it wouldn't work. And that was if she hadn't killed him on Mustafar. She had a feeling, though, that she hadn't. The Force wouldn't let her so-called chosen one die so easily.

Ahsoka huffed. "Chosen one. Yeah. _Right_," she choked out as she kicked at the sand and pebbles again. "I hate you," Ahsoka choked under her breath before she could stop herself. "I hate you so much, Skyguy."

Never mind that hate was the path to the dark side. Anakin had committed an atrocity that warranted hate. He'd taken everything from her. All that was left in the galaxy was darkness. She felt the tendrils of it in the Force, eagerly reaching to claim her. And frankly, Ahsoka didn't feel like there was a lot left to keep her from reaching back. She closed her eyes, just wanting the pain and sorrow to go away, wanting the darkness to welcome her in its cold embrace when she felt the persistent prodding and reaching out toward her of Luke and Leia.

"Ugh," she groaned. What did they want now?

She stomped back to the ship to find Threepio in a panic, Artoo trying to calm him down, and a set of twins letting shrill screams out their powerful lungs.

"For kriff's sake," Ahsoka finally said as she covered her montrals in an effort to block out the twin's screams. "Fine!"

She found their tentative and instinctive subconscious, still reaching out to her as it had been since they were born, and rather than deny them, Ahsoka reached back. She fell to her knees in front of the little makeshift beds and gasped at the warmth that overwhelmed her when for weeks, all she'd felt was the biting cold of loneliness and abandonment from the one thing left that she had to put her faith in. Except, the Force hadn't abandoned her. It had been trying to comfort her all along. But Ahsoka had denied its comfort because it hadn't comforted her in the way she'd wanted even though what she wanted was impossible.

"Oh," she muttered at the sudden clarity, as she ignored the droids' bickering and turned to the still screaming twins.

Tentatively, she reached into Luke's bed first. Tentative because, while she'd held the two before, it had been out of necessity to keep them alive rather than wanting anything. Carefully, she laid Luke in the crook of her right arm and mentally reached across the newly formed bond with the boy. The impressions she got from him were rudimentary, unsurprising for a life that was so new to the galaxy. But Ahsoka could pick up something that felt like the beginnings of fear and worry. That made no sense. Why would…?

She thought back to just a few moments ago when she'd been ready to let the darkness embrace her; only, she'd been interrupted when she sensed the twins reaching out to her again.

"Were you two worried? About me?" Ahsoka asked aloud. She knew better than to take the hiccup from Luke as anything other than being a remnant of his screaming earlier, but she was pretty sure she was right.

Ahsoka reached to grab Leia, who had quieted but was still whimpering, and with a little trouble maneuvered her into the crook of her left arm. After just a few moments of looking up at her, finally, the two drifted off into a restful if still a little uneasy sleep against her.

How selfish of her, Ahsoka thought to herself, to have been so consumed by her own loss to have forgotten that the two younglings, having inherited their father's power, would be scared and insecure in this suddenly very dark galaxy without the two sources of light and love they were accustomed to.

"I'm sorry, little ones," she whispered as she hesitantly returned feelings of calm across the two bonds. "I'm not leaving you. I promise."

In return, she received something back that was clearly contentment and joy; the only two emotions Luke and Leia should be aware of at this age. Ahsoka felt a pang that she was at fault for making them feel anything else.

Carefully, she put both back in the beds, and for the first time in weeks, they didn't awaken as soon as she put them down.

Ahsoka yawned in exhaustion. She hadn't gotten any sleep herself these last two weeks, but that could wait. Now that she didn't feel so foggy and the twins were quiet, she could better concentrate on the task of finding somewhere to settle down and call home with the twins and the droids. The feelings of righteous anger and sorrow at her shattered universe were still present, and Force knew that she was pretty sure if she came across Skyguy anytime soon, she'd be hard-pressed not to try to kill him with intent this time. But none of it was as overwhelming as it had been a few moments ago. Now, she could manage it and safely deal with her feelings once they were safe.

She went back to the navi-computer, quickly and efficiently narrowing down the list of possible planets that Palpatine or his enforcers wouldn't immediately find her. Particularly Skyguy once he recovered from that almost fatal blow she'd given him. Ahsoka had a feeling he'd be pretty pissed with her about that... One of the twins whimpered, and Ahsoka felt Leia begin to stir away. Rather than turn to tend to her though, Ahsoka sent soothing waves of comfort across the bond to lull her back to sleep.

For the first time in days, Ahsoka truly felt that she could keep them going.

_Mama, can we be Jedi just like you when we grow up?_

"Yes," she said aloud to herself as she found the planet they could settle down on. "You can be Jedi. Just like mama."

* * *

You know why I love writing angst? Because of all the complicated and conflicted emotions and constant highs and lows involved. Like, it's a given Anakin is pissed at Ahsoka. Whenever I ask myself how Anakin would react in any situation, anger is always a safe (if cliché) bet. But this chapter establishes how absolutely furious at Anakin Ahsoka is. And why wouldn't she be? In the course of a couple of days, everything she cared about is obliterated and the person responsible for it was her best friend. And then the Force is like, btw, Ima need you to mother his children for me, cool? Talk about issues that would take a counselor or therapist years to help someone unpack.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Keep the reviews, favorites, and follows coming. I really appreciate it and enjoy hearing what you all think.


	5. Trust

**Chapter Five: Trust**

Though she'd been worried about standing out, Ahsoka figured that two babies strapped against her chest was the best way to blend in and stay hidden from the Empire. Because why would a Jedi knight have newborns strapped to her chest? As it was, no one looked twice at her as she walked into the bustling town in the middle of the day with Artoo and Threepio, carrying the one large duffle bag of their belongings behind her.

Her mind automatically began cataloging all the things she was going to need to do. First and foremost, find shelter. After that, she needed a way to make money. As a war vet and Jedi, those two things weren't all that difficult to figure out, but two babies strapped to her chest made that infinitely more complicated. Who would hire her when she had two children to tend to?

Leia whined, and without looking down, Ahsoka said, "Am I worrying too much?"

She nudged against their bond, not sending any particular emotion over except to let the girl know she was there. Leia yawned and settled back down, though Ahsoka wasn't sure for how long that would be. Already, she was a lot more demanding than her brother, and only so many nudges against their delicate new bond would continue to placate her. Ahsoka sighed. Force knew she didn't want to before looking into all her options, but she was going to have to find somewhere to stay for the next couple of days until she could figure something out.

She headed to the more commercial area, figuring that was probably the best way to find room and board, and true to her suspicions, it didn't take her long to find someone renting a room for a reasonable price. Or what she thought was a reasonable price anyway, until the store owner renting rooms upstairs took one look at her and tripled the price.

"That's not what your sign says," Ahsoka said to the male twi'lek.

"Maybe, but babies cry. And if I have to listen to it, you have to pay for it."

Ahsoka didn't have an argument against the crying thing. The twins didn't cry nearly as much since they'd bonded, but they still did if she didn't change them or fix their bottle quick enough. Still…

"That's outrageous," Ahsoka argued. "A room in a crummy place like this is barely worth the price on your sign, let alone three times that."

"Four times, since you think it's so crummy."

Ahsoka fought the urge to choke the man. Normally, she wasn't so short-tempered. But even though she wasn't nearly as overwhelmed as a week and a half ago, she was practically starving, worried about running out of money, and more than anything just wanted a couple of hours of sleep without having to get up and tend to a baby. All of which was likely too much to ask.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It wasn't worth creating a scene here that could somehow get back to the Empire, no matter how far out of the way this planet was. She opened her eyes and got ready to put all the charm and negotiation skills she'd picked up from Obi-wan over the years to good use only for someone else to intervene.

"Shi is a crabby old dick with no compassion. You'd be wasting your breath trying to make him budge."

Ahsoka turned to look at the petite dark-skinned human woman, maybe only a few years older than her, with dark bushy hair and a distinctive nose ring.

"Tend to your own business, and I'll tend to mine," the twi'lek, Shi, snapped.

"Hard to do that when your terrible personality is stanging up the air I'm trying to conduct my business in," the woman snapped. Then she looked at Ahsoka. "You need a place to stay, sweetie?"

Ahsoka nodded warily.

"I've got an extra room. You can stay with me. And I've got a little boy at home. So the sound of your babies crying won't bother me."

Ahsoka paused, carefully reaching into the Force to sense the woman's intentions. If she had ulterior motives, they weren't dangerous to Ahsoka or the twins, she decided. Still, she'd been burned by people she trusted way too many times—most recently four weeks ago when Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side. There was no such thing as paranoia anymore.

"If you're some kind of slaver trying to lure me into a trap, it's not going to end well for you," she said, lifting the flap of the pocket in her cargo pants to show her blaster.

The woman laughed and opened her jacket to Ahsoka, revealing her own blaster as she said, "As long as you know the same goes for you."

Somehow, that comforted Ahsoka though it didn't dredge up the smile the woman was likely going for.

After the woman finished whatever business she'd had the small store, Ahsoka followed her through the streets and to her speeder.

"It's going to be a tight fit with the droids," she said as she opened the back and gestured for Threepio to put their one bag in it, "But luckily, my son's with a friend. We'll manage."

She insisted on making sure Ahsoka was settled with the twins first and then shifted things around to make room for Artoo and Threepio. Then they took off, leaving the bustling town and heading to a quieter and more residential part of town with small homes that had vines and growth of the surrounding flora all over them. It was something Ahsoka noticed and liked about the planet as soon as she'd stepped foot on it. How nature and the architecture co-existed together to create a traditional yet industrious atmosphere.

Ahsoka hesitantly walked into the woman's home when invited in. It was as small on the inside as it looked on the outside with a small living area, kitchen, and two small bedrooms, but Ahsoka wasn't picky.

"You can take the first bedroom."

After one more cursory glance, Ahsoka made her way into the small hall and found the first bedroom. Instinctively, she noted all the possible exits and hiding places before making her way in and sitting on the bed. She immediately unwrapped both twins from around her and lay them side by side on their backs, like the assistant at the medical center had instructed. Relieved, she stretched out her sore back and shoulders while instructing Artoo and Threepio to shut down for the day. As she did so, the human woman came into the room.

"They okay?"

"Yeah," Ahsoka said as she glanced at the two children. "They should be okay for a while. I took care of them before we got off our transport."

"Good. Here," the woman said as she went over to the bed.

Ahsoka instinctively moved to stop her until she saw the woman adjust the pillows so that one was on Luke's side and one was on Leia's.

"That way you don't have to worry about them rolling over. Now come on. You're probably starving."

Ahsoka followed the woman back into the living area and to her table.

"I don't know what's okay for you to eat. I haven't come across many togruta… I was going to make meat and veggies."

"That's fine. Thank you," Ahsoka replied quietly. "By the way. I didn't get your name."

"May. What about you?"

"Ashla," Ahsoka said without missing a beat. Her alias was the first part of her cover story that she'd come up with.

"Nice to meet you."

An awkward silence fell between them, though Ahsoka wasn't too concerned about breaking it. Neither was May until she had her meat and veggies in the oven and sat with Ahsoka at the table after putting a cup of water in front of her.

"You wanna talk about what's brought you out here, sweetie?"

"What makes you think there's anything to talk about?"

"You've got that look in your eye. You know, the one that says you've been through a lot without a break."

"Why do you even care?" Ahsoka asked before she could think better of it.

May didn't seem offended as she said, "This stupid war has touched everyone. Some in worse ways than others. And now they've gone and kriffed everything up even more with this new Empire and killing all the Jedi. They say the war is over, but it feels like things are just going to get worse. But what do I know? I'm just a history teacher who's seen this play out in history books before."

Ahsoka hoped May didn't notice her tense at the mention of the Jedi. "You're a teacher?"

"Yep. And I don't get paid enough for it out here, but I make ends meet."

"When you're not threatening people with your blaster."

May laughed. "To be fair, you threatened me first, though you had good reason. We've had refugees coming from everywhere here because nobody cares about Sheba. And sex traffickers and slavers have been more than happy to take advantage of people in their most desperate hour. You seem like one of the smart ones."

May didn't even know the half of it, Ahsoka thought to herself.

"Remember that in case you're one of the slavers and think you're going to pull one over on me," Ahsoka warned.

"You and I are going to get along. I knew there was a reason I lingered in Shi's store."

Ahsoka started to thank the woman for that before she sensed Leia once again beginning to stir at the edge of her consciousness, and she doubted the girl would go back to sleep again. Ahsoka stood up to get her two seconds before she began to cry, taking her into her arms long before they could get anywhere near the full-blown shrills that would wake her brother. Leia seemed content just to be held, but Ahsoka was sure she'd be hungry soon and reached into her bag for a bottle she'd made before her transport dropped them off. She'd sold her ship for scraps two planetary stops ago. Better to put as much space between her and anything that could be traced. If she needed to get off-planet, ships weren't hard to find.

"What are they? A couple of weeks?" May asked when Ahsoka sat back down with Leia. "You're pretty good at this already. I didn't even hear her cry until you left."

"Togruta hearing," Ahsoka said to explain away the fact that she'd sensed the girl's distress before she'd ever voiced it. It was a benefit of the bond, but she was going to have to be more careful about using it to tend to them.

"Ah," May said, though her eyes were on Leia, who didn't seem interested in going back to sleep. Instead, she looked up at Ahsoka with eyes that still looked blue but that Ahsoka knew from her visions would darken, along with the wisps of blonde hair, to a pretty dark brown like Padmé's. "Their father human?"

"Yes. He is."

"Is?" May asked just like Ahsoka expected she would.

Ahsoka took a deep breath, remembering everything she'd observed from years of watching Obi-wan negotiate. The best lies weren't lies at all. They were truth from a point of view. And from Padmé, she'd learned that the best way to get people to think what you wanted them to was to make them feel like it came from their own heads. Ahsoka remembered rolling her eyes at the woman's advice until she'd seen it in action on a political opponent and, on occasion, when he was being truly unreasonable, Anakin.

Ahsoka wondered when her heart would stop clenching every time she thought about the three people who'd looked after her for the past three and a half years but were no longer in reach.

"Yeah," Ahsoka finally answered as she looked down at Leia. "He was my partner. But he was fighting in the war, and it separated us a lot. When he came back the last time, the war had driven him insane, and he'd changed. We got into a fight, and I hurt him badly while defending myself."

"Is that why you ran away?"

"I didn't have a choice. He'd gotten a promotion to some leadership position, and they wouldn't have believed me, so I had to. The twins arrived in between transports to get here."

May whistled and said, "Yikes. That's some rough stang."

Ahsoka shrugged, feeling something between guilt and relief that the woman had fallen for it.

"I'm going to assume Ashla's not your real name. Is it?"

Ahsoka shook her head, and May shrugged.

"Well, kriff your partner. Sounds like a real piece of work. But hey? At least the babies are cute," May said. Then she leaned over to get a better look at Leia. "And they look human for the most part, but I can see some of your hue and features in them."

Ahsoka had to resist the urge to laugh. People saw what they wanted to see, she guessed.

"Thank you, again," Ahsoka said as she stuck the bottle in Leia's mouth finally. "How much is it for the room?"

"Don't worry about it."

"But—"

"Sweetie, the galaxy just got a lot darker for you and I. You especially with the new sexist and non-human policies that the Emperor is already pushing through."

"But I h—"

May raised her hand. "How about I let you get on your feet, and you pay me what you owe afterward? Right now, everything you've got needs to go towards taking care of those babies. And taking care of them means taking care of yourself."

May reached out her arms in a gesture for Ahsoka to hand over Leia, but Ahsoka narrowed her eyes and leaned away.

May sighed. "Don't worry. I'll feed—What's her name?"

"Leia."

"I'll finish feeding Leia. And I'll feed the other…"

"Luke."

"… when he awakes. But you need to go get cleaned up and get some rest because you look like you haven't slept in weeks."

Ahsoka hadn't. Not more than an hour or two here and there. Still.

"Why are you helping me?"

May rolled her eyes and said, "Because I've been where you are before. Not nearly as desperate but alone after just giving birth without my partner around to help, and I wish someone had offered to just hold my son so I could clean up and go to sleep. I promise I'm not going to steal them away. What slaver or trafficker wants crying newborns anyway?"

Ahsoka could name a few. There was a black market for babies for people who couldn't have their own and could afford it. But, she didn't detect any deception from the woman. She seemed to truly only want to help.

"Just trust me for right now."

Ahsoka swallowed, hating that she wanted to cry right then. May, a stranger she'd only met a couple of hours ago, was asking her to trust her when less than a month ago the one person in the galaxy she'd trusted the most had turned on her.

_You trust me. Right,_ Snips?

As though reading her mind but likely only putting two and two together after the story Ahsoka had told, May said, "I know it's hard after what your partner did. But you're going to have trust again sometime. You can't live in this galaxy without it. And it takes baby steps."

Though she'd sworn not to use it actively more than she had to, Ahsoka retreated just slightly into the Force, asking it for an answer.

_You're safe_, it impressed upon her. Ahsoka hesitantly handed Leia over to May after that.

May directed her to the 'fresher in the hall and told her she might find something that fit her to wear in the woman's closet. Though it certainly didn't solve all her problems, a shower and being clean helped Ahsoka feel better, and feeling surer that, for now, she was safe, she took May up on her offer to sleep while she watched the twins. Still, Ahsoka wasn't stupid. She woke Artoo to keep watch over them and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow while holding onto her blaster at her hip.

Ahsoka woke up sometime later, long after night had fallen with Luke and Leia lying carefully placed next to her. Still tired, but feeling a little more refreshed and relieved to not find herself locked in a cage with her younglings missing, Ahsoka took the blaster off her hip and placed it on the nightstand behind her before tucking the twins closer to her and drifting back to sleep.

* * *

**AN: **As a general rule, I hate OC's. Always have. Always will. And I generally don't like to write them. But you don't write a story this epic and not end up with some OC's. Don't worry. I'm conservative about my use of OC's. Star Wars is so massive I've got characters that I'm pulling from everywhere that are underused and don't really need to use a bunch of OC's. But I also know that a lot of people love them.

Anyway, I promise Ahsoka is going to get a break but... it's right after Order 66 guys. The next chapter is the first time skip of the story. A year or so after this chapter. And things are a little better. Trauma like this doesn't just go away. It won't always be the focal point of the story (I think I would make my own anxiety worse doing that). But it's something that Ahsoka (and eventually Vader, but we haven't gotten to him yet) are going to be working through for the rest of this story.

Also, I'm looking for anyone who might want to translate this fic for a Spanish-speaking version since I have a lot of Spanish-speaking readers.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows. I really appreciate it!


	6. Birthday

**Chapter Six: Birthday**

Ahsoka woke on the twins' first birthday to Luke and Leia, playing with her left montral together. Sort of together. Luke was playing with it, trying to get it in his mouth like he did everything nowadays, and Leia was trying to push him out the way to inspect it herself. She sat up to try to deny them both the privilege. But all that did was make Luke pull up on her arm to try to reach the top of her head.

"No, little one," she chided lightly, and predictably, Luke pouted, which meant crying because he couldn't get his way was soon to follow.

"Don't do this to me," Ahsoka added. "I'm not trying to let you cry first thing on your birthday."

She sent affectionate waves across their bond, which caused Luke's pout to just as quickly turn into a giggle as he settled for giving her a sloppy kiss on her face. Not to be outdone by her brother, Leia crawled into Ahsoka's lap and did the same before turning to Luke and pushing him so that he fell on his bottom on the soft bed.

"Leia. That's not nice," Ahsoka said to the girl whose response was to send something like defiance across their bond that Ahsoka responded to with unyielding disapproval, easily overwhelming the young girl's strong but not strong enough against Ahsoka's, will.

The result was Leia angrily pouting and laying her head on Ahsoka's chest for comfort and in some attempt to ignore her, which only caused Ahsoka to laugh.

"Come on," Ahsoka said standing with Leia in her arms. She held out her hand toward Luke who determinedly climbed off the bed before reaching up to take Ahsoka's hand so she could lead them to the 'fresher to clean them up for the day.

Once she had them cleaned up, she sat them in their booster seats at their small table. While Threepio took care of breakfast, Ahsoka made herself busy preparing the pastry that Padmé once made for her on her seventeenth birthday when somehow, miraculously, Ahsoka wasn't on the war front. Ahsoka was uncomfortable with it at first as birthdays weren't something the Jedi celebrated. But Padmé had thought it nonsense and made her a traditional Naboo birthday pastry with fruit preserves made from the sweetest fruit found on Naboo. She said it represented gratitude for the sweetness of the previous year and anticipation for the sweetness of the year to come, even though it might come with hardships. And hardships were right. The next year was the year Bariss framed her.

Ahsoka banished the thought from her head. Though she wasn't nearly as a wreck and depressed as she'd been a year ago, she still had enough bouts of sadness from time to time. Today was like that. Not just sadness, though. She was happy too. Because Ahsoka wasn't sure that she wouldn't have succumbed to the dark side at her lowest if the twins hadn't been there to pull her out. But sad because she wasn't the woman who Luke and Leia should have been calling "mama" and celebrating their first birthday with.

Regardless, Ahsoka was determined to do at least part of what Padmé would have done for them, even if Ahsoka didn't have the sweet Naboo birthday fruit for the pastry. She'd just make do.

She sensed May and her son's arrival long before they knocked on the door, but waited to actually go to the door until they knocked because that's what people who weren't Jedi did.

"The twins are eating breakfast," Ahsoka said as she made her way back to the kitchen.

"Don't rush, Ashla," May assured as she came in. "Tariq and I were ready, and I just figured I'd make my way over in the meantime."

Ahsoka smiled at the woman before turning her attention back to making the sweet preserves to pour on top of the birthday pastry for the twins.

True to the May's word, she'd helped Ahsoka get her bearings straight. No one would hire a girl with no obvious practical skills to her name who had two children to tend to. However, when Ahsoka fixed May's broken down speeder and saved the woman from having to shell out money she hardly had to fix it, she spread the word amongst some friends that Ahsoka was good with mechanics.

Ahsoka thought "good" was a reach. She was only passable with that kind of stuff, especially compared to the person that had taught her. But it was apparently a lot more than most people knew, and soon she was setting up shop right out of May's home until an appliance store owner in town heard about her and hired her to repair faulty items to prevent buyers from returning them. Then he showed her how to balance his books from month to month so during the first week of every month she could track the profits and loss from the previous month for extra pay. And while it paid just enough for Ahsoka to rent a little two-room house not far from May's on her own, the owner was a good man and let her bring the twins with her to work.

Eventually, Ahsoka paid May back for the four months that she'd let her live with her for free, despite the woman's insistence that she didn't need to. The woman turned around and bought Ahsoka a holocaster, couch, and coffee table as a "housewarming gift."

"_This way, you can keep up with current events," _the woman said.

Frankly, Ahsoka wasn't interested in hearing the Imperial propaganda from the media that was now state-owned and censored. Hushed conversations and stories from smugglers and off-worlders were how she got more trustworthy information. None of it was good.

But because May did like to keep up with what the Imperial news channels were saying, she turned on the holocaster. Ahsoka started to tune it out like she normally did when May was over in the morning and turned on the news, but one line caught her attention…

"_One of the Empire's chief enforcers, Darth Vader, made his first official state public appearance at Imperial Center's Empire Day Celebrations two days ago…"_

Ahsoka tuned out the rest of what was being said, but couldn't help turning around to get a glimpse of the image of the black suit, mask, and helmet that Ahsoka assumed acted as some sort of life support suit for her former master. No. Anakin Skywalker was her former master. Darth Vader was someone else entirely. Or at least, that's what her Jedi training said. More and more lately, as she gained distance from her initial despair over its destruction, she was starting to question the Order's line of reasoning about certain things. Because how could Anakin Skywalker have betrayed them yet be a totally different person than Darth Vader. It was hard for her to reconcile, especially whenever she managed to catch a glimpse of him on the holonews or through the holonet. She always felt a conflicted mixture of hate, anger, and betrayal over what he'd done and a strange sense of wistful sadness that he was gone, longing to have him back with her despite the terrible things she knew he'd done over the year.

Ahsoka sighed and turned back around, making sure to put her conflicted feelings about Darth Vader behind mental shields with the rest of the sadness she didn't want Luke and Leia to sense.

But though she could hide it from the twins, May was ever perceptive when it came to Ahsoka and called her out when they were sitting not too far from the edge of a shallow creek watching Tariq, Leia, and Luke play.

"What's bothering you, my friend?" May asked softly.

Ahsoka smiled a little, grateful for the woman's concern and companionship because she'd certainly made it hard on the woman in the beginning. She'd been suspicious, acted ungrateful and selfish, and was sometimes downright mean to May on the worst of days. But May had only been understanding and patient, and eventually, Ahsoka had come to see her as a friend she could trust. Not totally. Ahsoka didn't think she'd ever trust anyone fully again, but she trusted May enough to relax and not always be distant and on edge around the woman. Ahsoka couldn't say that for anyone else right now, but it was a start.

"Nothing. Just got a lot on my mind."

May put her hand on over Ahsoka's and said, "You miss him."

Ahsoka wouldn't insult the woman's intelligence by playing stupid, but she didn't particularly feel like talking about it either. May didn't seem to care.

"You know that's okay, right? You probably had a very different idea of how Luke's and Leia's first birthday would look before a year ago," May continued.

Ahsoka hadn't even known Padmé was pregnant with the twins, let alone had come up with some fantasy about their first birthday because she hadn't planned on being their mother. So many things that, if maybe she had done different, Padmé would be here with her and the twins or even instead of her. Maybe if she hadn't been so rash and hadn't rushed off to find Anakin on Mustafar? If she had been there when Obi-wan told Padmé the truth, and Ahsoka would have better known what she was getting into? Maybe even convinced Obi-wan to come to Mustafar to bring Anakin back and not to kill him? Or if she hadn't told Padmé where she was going to find Anakin so she couldn't have followed and inadvertently bought Obi-wan with her? Or if she'd been quicker to intervene when Anakin started to choke her? Or even before that, if Ahsoka had done her duty as a Jedi and engaged with Anakin as soon as he'd all but admitted he'd turned to the dark side?

Rationally, Ahsoka knew she couldn't have known what would happen.

It still didn't stop her from feeling guilty.

And while she wasn't totally opposed to talking about Padmé with May, Ahsoka had a cover to maintain. So she let out a deep breath, pushing the issue aside to continue to sort through later as she'd been doing with all her maelstrom of feelings about her life before. She smiled to herself a little, remembering there was a time all she'd wanted was distance from everything she knew to figure out some things. Now, she hated herself for ever feeling that way at all after everything had been taken from her. How ironic.

"I don't really wanna talk about it, May. Not today, at least. This day belongs to the twins," Ahsoka said and then gently took her hand away from the woman's without looking at her.

At that moment, Luke toddled to her with a small, smooth pebble in his hand and held it out to her.

"Yes, Luke. It's very pretty," Ahsoka said.

Luke then pulled his hand back and looked at the pebble for a moment longer. Then quicker than Ahsoka could have caught him, he put the pebble in his mouth.

"Luke! No!" Ahsoka said and she grabbed him and stuck her finger in his mouth to fish the rock out.

Unsurprisingly, he wasn't happy about that and began to cry in protest. Ahsoka tossed the pebble and said in a longsuffering tone, "Luke. You can't eat rocks."

Of course, he didn't get that, and he made his way over to May, who took him into her arms and let him lay on her chest while he pointedly looked in the opposite direction of Ahsoka.

"Mama's being unreasonable. Isn't she?" May joked.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. While Luke usually reminded her of Padmé with his cool and calm temperament, he too could exhibit his father's temper. At least he wasn't impassioned about something all the time like Leia. Though Luke tended to be a lot less cautious and more curious than Leia. Hence, why Luke tried to eat a rock, and Leia was content with picking them up and tossing them down the stream.

Luke was done playing for the day, content to sit with May, and then an hour later, Leia decided to call it a day by plopping herself tiredly in Ahsoka's lap. By the time they'd made the trek back to May's speeder and to Ahsoka's place to have dinner and watch the twins eat their birthday pastry in surprised wonder at its sweetness, Ahsoka forgot her earlier melancholy.

"The twins have never fallen asleep so fast," Ahsoka said as she came into the living room where May was after putting the two to sleep with May's son.

"Yep. Between the sun and running around, it wears them out," May said as she sat on the couch with a cup of caf in her hands.

"Good to know," Ahsoka said as she stretched out her sore shoulders from carrying the twins and all their stuff to and from the creek earlier. A year ago, she could have made that trek ten times over and not broken a sweat, but it wasn't like she'd had any time for the intense physical conditioning that kept her in shape during the war, nor would it have been inconspicuous.

She paused in the middle of stretching out her left shoulder, feeling May's gaze on her.

"What?"

May laughed a little and said, "I don't appreciate how you shot up on me. You weren't this much taller than me a year ago."

"Yeah," Ahsoka agreed.

_I'm going to be as tall as you one of these days._

_With or without the montrals?_

_They count._

"You're doing it again."

Ahsoka snapped out her musings and looked at the woman.

"Doing what?" she asked when she sat down.

"You're thinking about your partner again. Or something to do with him. You get this sad look in your eyes when you think about it."

"I told you. I don't want to talk about it."

"You clearly need to. You've been spaced out all day. All week really," May said bluntly. Her straightforward personality was something Ahsoka appreciated about her. "It's okay to miss him, despite the fact that he's an abusive asshole."

"He wasn't an abusive asshole," Ahsoka snapped, surprising not just May but also herself with how fast she'd jumped to defend her former master. May raised her eyebrows at her, and Ahsoka groaned. Damn this woman.

"Ashla."

Ahsoka sighed, leaning back against the couch as she said again, "Look. I don't expect you to understand it. I don't even understand it on most days. And I'm not trying to make excuses for him, but this war had gotten to everyone we knew who'd fought in it."

Ahsoka hadn't realized it at the time—or maybe she had and in her resentment toward the Order, just hadn't cared—but they'd all not been getting enough sleep. Were all weary from all the death and fighting they had to be a part of while trying to appease the Senate and the broader Republic by ending the war. Not even the Council had been infallible to its effects. The Council made hasty decisions and did things they never would have, dressing it up in wisdom and being guided by their clouded Force insight when it was clear to anyone who dared to think about it that they didn't even know what was going on. Someone was bound to snap. And hushed as it was kept, there were quite a few Jedi that had gone dark during the war. Anakin had only been the last to do so, and true to form, he'd done it in spectacular fashion. All Sidious' doing, Ahsoka now realized after a year of thinking about it, to herd the Jedi to their destruction.

"Did you fight in the war, Ashla?" May suddenly asked. "Before…"

"Yes. That's how me and my partner met."

Ahsoka didn't like to mislead May when she didn't have to. A lot of people had fought in the war without officially being part of the GAR. There was only so far the army could stretch, and they'd (the Senate) picked and chosen what fights to intervene in, so it wasn't a stretch for anyone to believe that she'd had to pick up arms to fight without them assuming she'd been a Jedi.

"That explains so much," May muttered.

Ahsoka frowned. "Like…"

"Well, you've got some insane reflexes for one. I thought it was just because you were togruta. And maybe some of it is, but not all of it. And you're scarily observant and shrewd. You know things and make accurate calls about people that most people wouldn't begin to notice. Like in the market the other day, and that trader tried to scam us out of credits for that mediocre quality cloth. No one can get anything over you. And the first thing you did when we met was threaten to shoot me. And you get this hard look in your eyes sometimes…" May trailed off, avoiding Ahsoka's gaze.

"I didn't know you were that observant?" Ahsoka teased with a smile.

May didn't immediately reply, and Ahsoka wondered if she'd said something wrong. It wouldn't be the first time she'd gotten in trouble for saying something without thinking about it. But finally, May looked up at her and said in a sweet, gentle tone that Ahsoka had never heard from the woman, "Ashla, I notice everything about you."

And then May leaned forward and pressed a kiss against Ahsoka's lips. It was quick, and over before Ahsoka could decide how she wanted to react to it. And as soon as it was over, May said, "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to take advantage of you, but you're so great and strong and kind despite having been through so much while being so young still. I…"

Ahsoka would be lying if she said May's confession was a surprise. Many times she'd sensed the woman's gaze lingering on her when she thought Ahsoka wasn't looking or noticed that one of the woman's friendly touches were just a little too intimate. But Ahsoka had willfully ignored the suspicion, truthfully not sure what to make of it. Technically, the Jedi were forbidden attachments and romantic ones in all forms, but there were many Jedi who'd had their "dalliances." Between being on the war front, and, when she wasn't, being occupied with catching up on all her assignments and classes, Ahsoka hadn't had a lot of time to put much thought into the matter.

"You say that as though you're not so young yourself," Ahsoka joked, both reminding the woman that she was only six years older than her and trying to bring levity to the conversation. It didn't work. Great. Hard conversations and feelings it was. "May, I don't feel like you're taking advantage of me. I've known how you felt for a while now."

"Of course, you did. Scarily observant and all."

"But we can't. I—"

"Is it because of the twins' father?"

"No!" Ahsoka said a little too quickly, and boy was that a lie. But not for the reasons May probably assumed it was.

Certainly, she'd had no romantic feelings for her former master for all that he'd been her best friend. But at the same time, he had everything to do with it because Ahsoka had the nagging feeling, though the Force would neither confirm or deny it, that this domestic life she'd been playing at for the past year would come to an end. One day, Darth Vader would find her, and she wasn't sure what that was going to mean for her.

But she couldn't say that, so Ahsoka went with another truth.

"I just… it's never occurred to see you that way. And I'm an emotional and mental mess. I can pretend I'm not on most days, but really, I always am," Ahsoka admitted. Then she let out a deep breath and said, "And I know what it's like to have your heart broken. I don't want to do it to you. Regardless of how I do or don't feel about you, you don't deserve that."

"Well, heartbreak is the risk you take for things like this," May said, realistic about things as ever, though that didn't always translate into being pragmatic. If May were more pragmatic, Ahsoka didn't think she'd be trying to jump into a relationship with a woman that she knew was hiding things.

Then again, Padmé had been very pragmatic and married Anakin despite all the odds stacked against them. They'd both had a reckless streak and tended to follow their passions.

"May."

"Look. I get it. You don't know about this. But maybe you won't unless you try. Maybe it's the very thing you need but don't know you do. I'm not trying to talk about anything long term. And I don't expect anything from you that you're not ready to give. I'm just saying it won't hurt either of us to try."

"It'll hurt you if I decide this isn't what I want." If Darth Vader came after her and May couldn't follow if she had to leave, Ahsoka wished she could add.

"No. It won't. That's why mature adults have conversations upfront about these things. Like we are now."

"How optimistic," Ahsoka couldn't help but say. Because May said that now but she might not feel that way if—when—the issue came up. "You don't even know my real name."

"And one day, when you're ready, you'll tell me."

Ahsoka sighed, caught between denying the woman and her own curiosity. She would again be lying if she said she wasn't a little curious about a relationship. May's kiss had felt nice against her lips, and it wouldn't be like much would change. They spent a lot of time together as it was.

"For the record, I just want it to be known that I'm still sure this isn't a good idea," Ahsoka finally said as she looked at the other woman with a fond smile.

"Ashla, sweetie, you worry way too much," May said in response and then kissed Ahsoka again.

* * *

**AN: **I'm so excited. Why? Because we're almost to chapter eight! What happens in chapter eight? Darth Vader returns to this story after what will have been four chapters without him. Goodness, writing from his point of view is such a challenge. A challenge I enjoy, but still a challenge.

Until then, for now, we get a glimpse into Ahsoka's relationship with the twins and a little of their personality so far, and then the next chapter is sort of a continuation of some things I dropped this chapter, and then Vader! It's kinda obvious how excited I am about that chapter, huh?

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Keep the reviews, favorites, and follows coming. I really appreciate the support!


	7. Attachment

**Chapter Seven: Attachment**

The first thing Ahsoka did when she got up in the morning was to turn on the holocaster, a habit she'd picked up from May in the last few months even though Ahsoka was as interested in hearing Imperial propaganda now as she was then. But she turned it on anyway whenever she'd spent the night at May's home or vice versa, part of the morning background. After catching a piece of what was on the news, Ahsoka wished she hadn't.

"Ugh," May said as she came into the room. "He's at it again. This isn't peace and security. This is state-sponsored terrorism."

While Ahsoka went to start breakfast, May sat in front of the holocaster and turned up the volume, making it impossible for Ahsoka to tune out. The more she heard about Darth Vader and his fleet quelling the violent insurgency that had erupted on Ryloth a couple of weeks ago, the more Ahsoka's heart sank. There was a time the person quelling the revolt would have been the one on the ground helping the Twi'lek dominated planet take their world back and fight for their independence from the Empire in league with the Hutts to exploit them. Of course, that's not how the news reported it, characterizing the freedom fighters as violent terrorists trying to take advantage of and undermine the benevolent Empire that had allowed it to keep its independence and amiably trade resources.

"I can't stand that… thing. What even is Darth Vader? Someone has to do something about them," May declared.

"May," Ahsoka said, not in the mood to hear this diatribe.

"Oh, come on. Everyone's thinking it. There's no way you actually sympathize with the Empire. This isn't what you were fighting for during the war."

"No. I don't sympathize with the Empire," Ahsoka said firmly. It was Darth Vader that, much to her horror, she was starting to sympathize with. "And it's not what I was fighting for during the war. But look where it got us. We were all in over our heads. And so are you by even thinking about doing anything."

"The only reason they can do this to us is because people are scared to stand together and fight back. The Empire can't quell insurgencies on hundreds of thousands of systems at the same time."

"The only way that works is if you have enough of those hundreds of thousands of systems willing to risk destruction so that the others can win. And quite honestly, most people just want to keep their head down and hope to the Force that they don't inadvertently do something that will make the Empire notice."

"Like you?" May asked.

"Like you should," Ahsoka shot back. "You're lucky. You've got a son to raise, and the Empire doesn't care about this world. No one here cares about the Empire. Don't ruin it for yourself."

"But that's exactly why we can help. I overheard some of the traders and smugglers talking. There are whispers of a rebellion."

"There are rebellions happening everywhere."

"Not just small pockets, but whispers of a real one. And a possible alliance. Maybe we can ask around. Get in touch with them…"

"That is the absolute _last_ thing we're going to do," Ahsoka argued.

"I thought you of all people would understand."

"I do. And if it were just my neck on the line, absolutely. But it's not. It's the twins. It's your son. The best thing we can do for them right now is stay out of it and let everyone else sort it out."

"You mean the elite who see this as no more than a power grab? Who are so out of touch with the people they claim to speak for and got us in this mess in the first place?" May asked pointedly. Ahsoka, admittedly, couldn't argue with that one. "And that's just it. The twins. Tariq. Is this the galaxy we want them to have to inherit and navigate? The same reasons you think we should stay out of it are the same reasons we should get involved."

"That's something like what my partner said to me when I wanted to leave the war, and he convinced me to stay and fight. Before the twins," Ahsoka added. "One more battle. I could make the difference. And I didn't. You forget, May. I've done this once before."

Ahsoka turned back to cook breakfast at that, trying to ignore the frustration directed at her that she felt from May. They both put their conflict aside to feed the children breakfast before Ahsoka decided it was time for her and the twins to go home after having spent the night.

Before she did, though, May pulled Ahsoka into a hug, forcing Ahsoka to forget about her bad mood as May leaned up to kiss her and said, "I don't want us to be angry at each other, Ashla. I'm sorry if I came across as insensitive. This is all just so frustrating. Do you know the new Imperial curriculum is phasing out evening mentioning certain key players in history and the war?"

Ahsoka could believe it. After the initial purge, the media had stopped even mentioning the Jedi. If she hadn't been a Jedi herself, Ahsoka would wonder if they'd ever really existed at all.

"Just… I love you, even if I don't understand what you're thinking sometimes," May continued.

Ahsoka smiled at her girlfriend and smiled against the woman's lips before muttering, "I love you too." Maybe not in the way May certainly did—something she'd admitted to May when the woman first told her that and that the woman had waved away in understanding because Ahsoka was still sorting out her feelings. But she did love the woman at least as a friend.

"I have to go," Ahsoka said. "I don't have to go into the shop today, but the books don't balance themselves."

"This problem would be easily resolved if we moved in together. You shouldn't have moved out in the first place."

"Tariq is getting bigger. He needs his space, and you're in a position to give it to him."

"You're acting like we can't just get a bigger place together."

There were a lot of reasons that was a bad idea, the least of which being that Ahsoka was sure this between her and May wouldn't last. The other was that the twins grew more and more every day into their Force power. Her shields still effectively protected them from anyone that might care to notice, but Ahsoka wasn't sure how their power would continue to develop as they got older if they were anywhere near as powerful as Anakin had been. The twins already had to hide enough as it was. She didn't want Luke and Leia to have to be cautious of their abilities in their own home, especially when it came time to train them to shield themselves and their powers, something she was going to have to start doing very soon.

It was yet another thing she couldn't tell May, so Ahsoka just laughed and gave May one final kiss. "I'll see you later."

Then she gestured for Luke and Leia, now a year and a half old and steady enough on their feet to at least make half the short trip home, to follow her out the house.

"Bye, May," Leia managed while Luke only waved. Ahsoka sensed him try and fail to reach out in the Force to convey an impression of Leia's words to May, only for it not to work like it always didn't. One of these days, Luke would figure out that it never would and resort to using words. His sister had been less hopeful. After the first few failed attempts at transferring a thought or impression to May, Leia had resorted to speaking to communicate with the woman.

The two walked out the door ahead of her, and Ahsoka followed, guiding them back to their home. But of course, Luke and Leia wanted to explore everything in their paths along the way.

Ahsoka didn't mind. These short walks, made longer by the twins' exploration, were the closest thing to meditation that she got nowadays, and May had certainly given her a lot to think about.

This wasn't the first time May had hinted at wanting to do something about the Empire, but this was the first time she'd said anything about it so openly. And while Ahsoka had argued, she didn't disagree with the woman's sentiments. It was hard to go into town and hear the whispers of atrocities, to look at the news and see how the Empire dressed up those atrocities to make them look honorable, and then not be frustrated that if anyone could help do something about it, Ahsoka could. She still had her lightsabers and old battle armor sitting in the back of a closet. She'd had contacts everywhere as a Jedi, both in the Republic and with the Separatists, and certainly not all of them, particularly the Separatists, were loyal to the Empire. Certainly, one of them knew someone she could talk to about this rebel alliance that she too had heard smugglers whispering about. Certainly, there was something she could do.

But when she'd been as close to deciding to do something as she'd ever gotten one quiet night, as she lay bare next to May in bed, she'd been surprised when the Force gave her an answer without her bidding.

_Stay put._

Besides, like she'd told May, it wasn't just her life on the line.

"Mama, come on!" Leia shouted, having resorted to words after Ahsoka had ignored the persistent nagging from the two over their bond that they were ready to move on again.

Her duty to the twins now went beyond a mere promise to Padmé to watch over them or the loyalty she liked to pretend she didn't still have to her former master. Even without the Force bonding them together, she was hopelessly attached to the little ones, sometimes even surprising herself with the fierceness of her love and protectiveness of them. Maybe it was some ancient, dormant togruta instinct to protect her pack, particularly her younglings. Either way, she had to consider them before she made a move that she couldn't turn back from. And it was that attachment and protectiveness of them that over the last few months had transformed some of her anger and hate at Anakin into something like pity for the monster he'd become.

He'd been so attached and protective of those he cared for, for Padmé and the twins before they were born, that he'd been willing to do anything to save them. Even damn himself and the galaxy if there was a chance. Anakin Skywalker had damned himself but lost everyone anyway, and now Darth Vader was throwing a glorified temper tantrum in his pain and grief trying to forget his failure.

Ahsoka hadn't understood the intensity of that desperation and how irrational those feelings could be until her bond with the twins began to develop; after watching their faces light up when they woke up and saw her; after Leia, demanding as always, had grown impatient and called her "mama" for the first time; after Luke, once sensing she was sad, had crawled into her lap, laid his head on her chest, and pat her with his little hand to comfort her. She'd do anything for them just short of damning her own soul. And Force only knew what she'd do to whatever or whoever dared to ever try to harm them.

In growing to sympathize with her former master, her anger at the Order, which had been non-existent after its destruction in her shock that it was gone, returned. To them, Anakin's fall was the exact cautionary tale against attachments they'd tell in the crèche. But now Ahsoka wondered if it wasn't the secrecy and shame around having those attachments that had led to the Jedi's doom. Because for all Palpatine's machinations, he certainly hadn't had anything to do with the Jedi's interpretation of the Code.

How much better at protecting the galaxy would the Jedi have been if they'd had their own families back on their homeworlds to fight for? How much less likely would they have been to bow to the whims of the Senate if they had affected family? Would there have been silence when the Jedi were declared traitors to be slaughtered if the rest of the galaxy had known them as sisters and brothers and cousins or fathers and mothers and not just some distant, powerful religious order shrouded in mystery? Would Anakin have even turned to the dark side at all if he'd known the Jedi would have been understanding of his fear and helped him figure out what might be happening to Padmé?

Ahsoka didn't like to deal in what-ifs. She had enough regrets as it was. But if eventually she was going to be in a position to do anything about this mess, she figured she needed to understand the failure that led them here in the first place. And goodness knew she had nothing but time to think and philosophize about it.

Little more than halfway home, Luke decided that he wanted Ahsoka to pick him up. Leia soldiered on a little while longer, getting further than she'd ever gotten on her own, but she too demanded to be picked up eventually. By the time Ahsoka was being greeted by Threepio, both were asleep again.

Ahsoka laid them down on their bed, which they only used for naps since most nights found them asleep with her, and then went to the closet and carefully retrieved her hidden lightsabers. She made sure all the doors and windows were locked and shaded before she moved her couch and coffee table aside to practice her katas. If she was going to eventually be back on the front lines of war again—for war was the only way any conflict with the Empire would end because Palpatine had paid for his power with blood and blood was the only payment he'd accept in return—she wanted to be ready as possible.

For all her arguing with May about not getting involved, Ahsoka even had the beginnings of a plan. How she could get rebellious cells to link up and become part of a broader communication system so they could form an alliance, a list of planets that would join, and a list of planets that might be sympathetic if not outright join. Many of them, Padmé's old contacts.

Ahsoka didn't dare write any of it down, committing the parts she'd figured out to memory while trying to figure out the rest. And the rest was a lot. Spies to get them reliable information on the Empire's doings. How this theoretical rebel alliance would be able to quietly amass their own navy for when all-out war inevitably broke out. A team to train soldiers and recruits, supplies for future bases and headquarters. The list was long and seemingly endless. A monumental task that Ahsoka knew she'd never be able to do alone. Then there was how she was going to keep the twins safe and out of harm's way in all this-far from the watchful eye of the Empire. Sidious, first and foremost. Darth Vader…

That was the biggest kink in all this. What to do about the emperor's proverbial fist? The whispers she'd heard about him were honestly quite terrifying. And if she hadn't known the man behind that mask, Ahsoka would wonder if the whispers weren't exaggerated. But she'd had a frontrow seat to Anakin's power when he'd made up his mind to do something, and Ahsoka knew, if anything, that the tales were likely downplayed.

Ahsoka couldn't just ignore him, though. If word got out that she was spearheading a rebellion against the Empire, he'd certainly pay attention to her. Anyone else would be an annoyance, an insignificant threat that would be beneath his notice. But if Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker (Force knew she was still trying to sort out that identity crisis in her head), Ahsoka would be a personal vendetta. The one directly responsible for the life support suit he was in. The last one to see Padmé alive. The one raising his twin children though he wasn't aware of it. He didn't let personal vendettas like this go.

Ahsoka laughed a little, though there was little humor in the thought of being surprised that Darth Vader hadn't killed Palpatine yet for Padmé's death since it was certainly Sidious who'd told Vader that his new powers would prevent from that death from happening. Or maybe he was still planning to at some point. Hotheaded as her former master was, no doubt he'd figured out that overthrowing his master wasn't going to be as simple as he'd thought it would be when he proposed it to Padmé. He was probably in as much of a jam for help doing that as she—

_So what are you going to do? Kill me too? I am a Jedi._

_No. You're part of the plan._

Ahsoka paused her kata and opened her eyes at the idea that came to her head.

"That's insane," she muttered to herself. But the more she thought about it, the more it felt right. Unbelievable as that was.

"No," she said, trying to shake the thought from her head. There was no appealing to Darth Vader. Padmé tried, and she'd died for the effort…

But no. Padmé tried to appeal to Anakin Skywalker, not knowing that he'd thrown away the principles that had once governed him in favor of succumbing to the darkness. Darkness that Ahsoka had gotten glimpses of when she'd been apprenticed to him but realized the gravity of far too late.

But what if Ahsoka didn't appeal to the good. She'd come up with on her own that Darth Vader was throwing a glorified temper tantrum for all that he'd lost. What if she appealed to that and redirected it toward the person who was really responsible for his pain…? What if she did more than just raise a rebellion? What if, if she could appeal to the darkness, she helped Darth Vader take over the empire?

"Kriff. Now that _is _insane, Ahsoka," she muttered to herself.

But stang if this could work. It could work better than just raising a rebellion to fight a war. And it solved the problem of what to do about him. That way, an alliance wouldn't have to worry about taking on _two _Sith Lords. Betrayal was the way of the Sith, after all. The apprentice killed the master according to what little the Jedi had known about the dark side order. But then what in the world was she supposed to do to _control_—Force, she really had gone insane—Darth Vader after that. No one had been able to do that _before_ he turned to the dark side. And Ahsoka was sure his loyalty to Palpatine was tenuous at best right now. Palpatine controlled him because Darth Vader had nowhere else to turn.

Ahsoka could give him another option, though, make him an offer that he wouldn't be able to refuse. No one alive except maybe Obi-wan and not even Palpatine could claim to know Anakin Skywalker better than she did, which meant she also knew Darth Vader. And if she played on his weaknesses, his desire for revenge for the family Palpatine had taken from him, the remnants of which Ahsoka had taken into her care…

Ahsoka's entire being revolted at the thought of revealing Luke and Leia to Darth Vader, but if Darth Vader was taking out his grief on the galaxy, then maybe the Jedi were wrong. Maybe he was still Anakin Skywalker, just a little unhinged…

"A lot unhinged," Ahsoka corrected as the image of him choking Padmé came to mind. She couldn't know that he wouldn't hurt Luke and Leia. She'd die and take him with her before she let that happen. But she had a feeling that revealing them to Darth Vader wasn't her choice to make. It wasn't a question of if but when. Darth Vader was going to find them eventually. Soon Ahsoka sensed. And when he did, Ahsoka was going to have to figure out a way to use the revelation of the twins in her favor while protecting them at the same time.

Ahsoka took a deep breath and began her katas again. Apprehensive as she was about it, she began to adjust her original plan and accounted for possibilities that included having Vader on her side. She only had so much time to come up with a proposal that Vader wouldn't be able to refuse.

* * *

**AN: **This is one of my favorite chapters of the story. I really just enjoying writing the slow dawning realization on Ahsoka that one of her problems may actually be part of the solution to many of her problems. There's a lot more to it, but I wrote it. You all speculate and tell me what you got from it. Lol.

NEXT CHAPTER VADER COMES BACK! So much fun!

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review, favorite, and follow please! I really appreciate it.


	8. Proposition

**Chapter Eight: Proposition**

It was an utter coincidence of the Force that he'd found her.

The data of locations for possible developing organized rebellions had been left for him weeks ago. And after coming back from yet another mission, Vader finally decided to take the time to quickly look through them. Most of them were benign in nature and would fizzle out long before they could turn into anything organized or would be nothing more than an insignificant annoyance if they did get organized. Some locations weren't a threat, but that the Empire would have to keep an eye on to make sure they didn't develop into something that resembled a threat. A few came with photos of people of interest who might be leading possible resistances.

He'd been briefly skimming a report of a planet at the edge of the Mid and Outer Rim named Sheba when he came across a photo of the human male making his way through a market. The man was looking over his shoulder as though he knew he was being followed. For a reason Vader hadn't been sure of, the holo caught his attention. A nagging feeling in the Force telling him to look closer… That was when he noticed a civilian in the background. Not just any civilian. A togruta female. She was nowhere near the supposed rebel that was the focus of the image and her attention consumed by a human woman with her, but he'd recognize her anywhere. Even out of focus in the background of a holo of someone else.

To think. If he'd been swiping any faster through the reports and the holos attached, he would have never noticed. No one else would have either. She might have even lived out whatever pathetic existence she'd decided to settle into after the last time he'd seen her: when she left him for dead on Mustafar.

He redirected the sorrow that began to build at the thought of his dead wife into hatred and betrayal at his former apprentice. He'd given her an out, didn't kill her when it was what his new master would have demanded of him, and then she'd turned around and betrayed him. No. Betrayed the weak man that he'd risen from. She was just another Jedi in hiding. A smart one, not drawing making the racket that some of her other fellow Jedi had made, but just a Jedi nonetheless who happened to be one of the last remaining pieces of evidence that Anakin Skywalker had ever existed.

If it were any other Jedi, Vader might just send one of the Inquisitors to deal with her. But Anakin Skywalker's former apprentice was a crafty one, proven by her antics at the end of the Clone Wars.

_You're gonna give the Separatists and the Jedi Council hell, Snips,_ came the memory from a life abandoned. But the point was that the young togruta woman had certainly taken that to heart. Only second outside of maybe Kenobi to her former master in terms of fame-more like infamy-amongst their Separatists opponents and their Jedi brethren. And she'd milked the guilt of the High Council of the latter for their betrayal of her for all it was worth those first few months of her knighting until the Council had asked his former self to see if he could get a handle on her.

"_You _disobeyed_ a _direct_ order from the Council? Multiple according to Obi-wan. Are you serious?"_

She didn't take the reprimand seriously. The fact that he might have been a little amused at the whole situation likely didn't help.

"_I took it more as advice. They said I shouldn't, not that I couldn't."_

"_Yeah. But I think you're conveniently forgetting the part where at the end of your conversation the Council said, 'That's an order, Knight Tano.'"_

"_Must not have heard it," _had been her cheeky response. When he hadn't been impressed, she added more solemnly, _"They weren't in the trenches with me. They didn't have all the extra information I did in addition to the intel they had."_

"_Ahsoka."_

"_If it would have put me in way over my head—more than we usually are anyway—I wouldn't have kept going."_

"_You're as reckless as the day I met you, my young padawan," _he'd said somewhere between teasing and exasperated as he used a gloved hand to pat her head between her montrals.

"_Learned from the best, Skyguy."_

He suppressed any feelings of nostalgia and wistfulness that tried to bubble to the surface at the memory, instead focusing on the fact that it proved she was a much more dangerous threat to the Empire than the Inquisitors could handle.

He'd deal with Ahsoka Tano personally.

* * *

As far as hiding places went, a small home in a quiet neighborhood not too far from town would have been the last place that he'd expected her to be if Vader had actually been looking for her. She'd always been the type to run to trouble and could only stay in one place doing nothing for so long, certainly not just going to some quiet job that didn't even utilize a fraction of her skillset and then going back to her personal dwelling. Something else was amiss. And before he cut her down with his blade, Vader intended to find out just what.

He gestured for his troopers to surround the home before he strode right up to the locked but hardly secure front door and made his way inside, red lightsaber illuminating the room in what should have been an ominous warning. Apparently, she either hadn't gotten the memo or didn't seem to think it was ominous because she was calmly sitting on a cushioned seat across from the door and behind a wooden coffee table. Like she'd been waiting on him. His curiosity about that was the only thing that kept him from immediately attempting to engage her.

Neither said anything for a while, until finally, still as spunky as she'd always been, the togruta, no longer the girl just on the cusp of womanhood that she'd been two years ago but now a fully adult woman, said, "Darth Vader. That's the name you go by now, right?"

"_Jedi,_" he replied in return.

Through the red lenses of his mask, he could practically see her resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

"Always making things difficult, _Anakin._"

"That name has no meaning to me," Vader replied. Maybe if he continued to say it enough, he'd be convinced it was true.

"If it didn't, you wouldn't have come in here to deal with me personally. You would have let one of the Emperor's inquisitors deal with me."

He pretended not to be irritated that after all this time, she still knew him so well. Instead of acknowledging her observation, he asked, "So accepting of your fate? I didn't think you of all people wouldn't put up a fight."

"I think we both have different ideas of what will be my fate tonight," Ahsoka replied, somewhat absently.

He probed her in the Force, only to expectedly hit the walls of her mental shields. Even so, he could tell she was distracted by something. Somehow, his presence hadn't captured her full attention. Perhaps he'd been wrong about her being out here and staying out of trouble.

"And what's your idea?" he asked, raising his lightsaber in her direction to distract her while he reached out with his senses to figure out what could be around that had her distracted.

"I've got a proposition that I think you might be interested in, Darth Vader. How about you have a seat and we have a chat?"

Whatever it was she was hiding, Vader couldn't find. And it was the only reason he was allowing her to chat with him at all.

"How about I stand here and you talk very quickly?" he suggested.

"Suit yourself," she said with a shrug, trying and failing to hide her nervousness. It was in her demeanor; the way her hands kept twitching like she wanted to grip the armrests of her chair but were staying ready in case she needed to grab the lightsabers at her hips; the way her feet were flat against the ground in case she had to run suddenly or defend herself.

She wasn't afraid but cautious. Good. She should be. And she would be afraid by the time Vader was through with her.

She continued, "I've thought a lot about what happened the last time we saw each other. What all of us could have done different."

So had he, Vader thought to himself as all the things that had gone wrong those few days filled his thoughts because stars knew he had nothing but time to brood about them. If instead of just leaving without giving any information, he'd been more forward about what was going on and his plans. If he hadn't been in such a rush and let her go wake Padmé and assured them both that no matter what they heard, everything would be fine; and if they just waited for him, he'd sort it all out. Anything that would have been able to act as a buffer to the uncontextualized truths Obi-wan had told Padmé that made her run after him and lead Obi-wan straight to him. Even before that, if he'd just not told his former apprentice where he'd gone so she wouldn't have been able to tell Padmé at all. So he wouldn't have lost control of his new powers and…

It didn't matter. That was the beginning of the end of a life that was no longer his.

"We were so focused on fighting each other that we forgot about the person really pulling the strings, the real enemy in the whole grand scheme of things. Palpatine. He lied to all of us. He was the real traitor. The reason for the destruction of the Order. The reason for the war…"

Ahsoka trailed off, and Vader wondered if the thing that had distracted her before was the thing distracting her again. It wasn't.

"The reason Padmé died," she dared to say.

He barely restrained the anger and self-loathing that surfaced within him. The last time that had happened, his former apprentice took advantage of it to nearly kill him.

She'd sensed it. He could tell because she tensed at the raw power that had briefly emanated from him. That didn't stop her from saying her next sentence.

"You really didn't believe whatever lie they told about her death. That a rogue Jedi killed her. That I killed her after I left with her?" She asked, clearly having lost all sense of self-preservation. "Or did Palpatine convince you that you killed her?"

He didn't even try to restrain the inferno of hate, rage, and guilt that boiled over in him at her words. And for the first time since she'd laid eyes on him, he sensed she was properly terrified. Good. He'd had enough of her pointless, sentimental ramblings about a past neither of them could fix, even if he'd wanted to. He started to raise his lightsaber in her direction until a spike of fear that wasn't hers filled the room, and the jumble of footsteps interrupted the tense atmosphere as two small blurs ran into her.

"_Mama_," they, two seemingly human younglings, cried as they ran into her legs.

Vader faltered at that.

Of _all _the things that he'd expected to be distracting her, younglings had been the absolute _last_ . When in Sith hell had Anakin Skywalker's former apprentice found the time to have one youngling. Let alone _two_.

While she had a very tense exchange with a familiar gold protocol droid, the two younglings climbed into her lap, each grabbing a lek as they buried their faces into her chest. While she was distracted and very pointedly not looking at him, he took the time to inspect the younglings in the Force. They were extremely Force-sensitive, but he only noticed that as an afterthought. What really caught his attention was how familiar their Force signatures were. And not because they reminded him of the togruta woman in front of him.

It occurred to Vader that she admitted she'd whisked Padmé's body from Mustafar. And if Padmé hadn't been dead like he'd been led to believe, she would have been there if Padmé had managed to give birth before she died, even though the reports and autopsies both official and unofficial said she'd died pregnant…

No. He couldn't allow himself to hope. But still… what if…?

Still not daring to look at him, she whispered to them, "It's okay, little ones. There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm sure it was just a bad dream."

When they continued to whimper, both quietly whining "mama," she gave Vader a sharp look and snapped, "Stop it. It's you that's scaring them."

In shock more than anything, he got a handle on his increasing loathing at the woman in front of him for what he suspected was true and restrained his raw dark side power.

Then she continued in obvious scorn and annoyance, "Can you take that mask off at all? Or did I manage to injure you on Mustafar as bad as I thought I did?"

He tightened his grip on his lightsaber to keep from lashing out at her. But he wouldn't do anything until he knew for sure who the children in her arms were. He wouldn't make the same mistake here that he'd made with Padmé that day on Mustafar. He'd hear her out first. And if he didn't like her answer… well, then she'd pay for every one of her sins against him. Old and new.

He turned off his lightsaber and returned it to his belt before he pressed a button to release the helmet and remove it. The mask followed, and immediately, he felt the promise of an annoying tightness to come because of the difficulty he had breathing on his own from the injury that she'd given him. He ignored that, though, as he laid his own eyes on the two younglings thanks to a small dim light in the corner.

One had blonde hair and the other had brown and that was all Vader could deduce with their faces buried in Ahsoka's chest as it was.

He set the mask and helmet down on the wooden table and asked in a soft, raspy voice that had also been damaged from his injury, "Are they…?"

She knew what he was asking without him finishing.

"Yes. Luke and Leia."

Now calm, but still awake, Luke and Leia, a boy and a girl he now knew, looked up at the togruta woman after recognizing their names from her lips.

"Yes. That's both of you," she said in acknowledgment while keeping an eye on Vader.

"I thought… I thought I killed her. And the baby—babies—with her," Vader said, not sure what to do with the swirl of emotions that welled up in him. Ones he long thought himself incapable of feeling.

"I don't know if what you did resulted in her death," she said firmly.

Neither did he now. And now that he once again didn't know, Vader was content not to ever know. So long as the children were alive, he could live without knowing that truth.

"She lived long enough to give birth to them and name them, though."

"You had no right to keep them from me," he said, trying and failing to put any real loathing in his tone because his children hadn't died with their mother. He didn't know if he killed her, but he hadn't killed them. That was for sure.

"Can you blame me? You killed the younglings at the Temple. You threatened to kill me. You strangled Padmé. You tried to kill Obi-wan. _You_ betrayed _us_."

Vader narrowed his eyes at her but other than that said nothing. Because that was all true, even if it had been necessary—except for choking Padmé. She was conveniently leaving out, though, that they betrayed him first. If for once, they'd just trusted him…

She continued, "I couldn't assume they'd be safe from you. But I did know eventually you'd find us. And I was hoping by the time you did, we both would have cooled off and actually be able to talk with cooler heads and come to agree that the real enemy in all this is Palpatine. And that _we_ have to take him down."

"Revenge isn't the way of the Jedi," he said instinctively like the old proverb it was. But now he understood why she hadn't been trying to flee when no doubt she'd sensed him as soon as he arrived in the atmosphere.

"Maybe not. But this isn't revenge. Or at least, I don't see it that way. I can't change what happened. But I can make sure that Palpatine doesn't get to do this again and that you get back everything he promised he would give you but didn't while at the same time taking the power and Empire that Palpatine holds so dear. And if it looks a little like revenge? That's the Order's problem. And you made sure there's not much of it left."

She'd tried and failed to keep the anger out her tone. Failed to hide the feelings of anger, the hate, and the betrayal from seeping through her mental shields, and the darkness in him leaped in delight at the potential. She always did feel intensely when not allowing herself to be restricted by the Jedi teachings. And so it seemed two years away from the Order had allowed her the freedom to feel more. What she could do if she gave in to the dark side. What they could do together.

She'd more than make up for the crippling disadvantage that was the necessity of needing his suit if he tried to take Sidious on his own. He'd wanted to kill the man as soon as he'd woken up in the suit, and his master had revealed he'd killed Padmé in anger. Because even if it had been by his own hand, Sidious should have warned him about the hold the dark side would have over him, the things it would make him do even if that's not what he'd wanted. If Vader was responsible, then so was Sidious as far as he was concerned.

The twins must have sensed the same anger that Vader did because the blonde youngling began to pat a small hand on the togruta woman's chest while the brunette youngling said, "It's okay, mama."

He momentarily let himself be distracted by the two small children, wanting to take them in his arms but not wanting to risk hurting them if the woman holding them refused to yield them. Finally, he asked, "And what do you get out of all this, _Ahsoka_?"

Because no Jedi, not even one as unconventional as he knew the one in front of him had been, offered a truce as unprecedented as this without getting _something_ out of it.

"To make sure these two don't inherit this fight because we didn't do something about it while we had the chance. So they can live in a world where they aren't in constant danger and hunted for their power. Where no Force Sensitive child is. By either the Sith or the Jedi," Ahsoka declared.

And that's when he probed and sensed the Force bond between her and the twins. So not only had she hidden his children from him, but she'd gone and formed some attachment to them, and they were now under the impression that she was their mother. He'd deal with that later.

"And maybe… Maybe in the process, with time, wounds will heal and become old and hurt a lot less, and I'll get at least one friend back."

He sensed a familiar ache from her, one he knew all too well. Loneliness. A desire for acceptance she might not even know she had. A desire Vader planned to take full advantage of. What a wonderful Sith apprentice she'd make.

As though reading his mind, she added, "Let me be clear, though. I won't turn to the dark side. I won't be your Sith apprentice. I'm your equal partner in this. And while I accept that this darkness is part of you, I won't let you try to corrupt Luke and Leia with it. Or try to hurt them because of it. It'll be over my dead body first."

He resisted the urge to smirk at her brave audacity. That she would dare threaten to stand in the way of him and his children. She hadn't changed a bit, and he'd accept nothing less from anyone that wanted to ally with him to snatch away everything that his master held so dear. As for not being his Sith apprentice… well, he'd see about that one. It would certainly be an enlivening challenge.

"I think," Vader began and then paused just to mess with her, feeling alive for the first time since the day he thought he'd lost everything. "I think I can live with those terms."

Something passed between them in the Force as the thick tension finally alleviated, and even Vader found it easier to breathe.

Ahsoka stood to her feet and approached him with both children now asleep in her arms. Then she gestured for him to take the brunette one from her. As he took the child, Vader swallowed his frustration that he didn't even know who his own children were. That he didn't know which one was Luke and which one was Leia, and that he'd have to swallow his conflicted emotions, mainly his pride, to ask Ahsoka who was who.

The youngling stirred in the process of the transfer into his awkward hold against armor that had to be uncomfortable to lie on.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Don't be so stiff, Skyguy," she said, ignoring the dark look he sent her way. Just because they'd agreed to something that resembled a truce, for now, didn't mean she could get comfortable with him. "Relax. Put your other hand on her back and rub and pat it softly. Make her feel safe."

He followed her instruction, and finally, the girl—Leia—settled back into sleep against him. In another time and place, this wouldn't have been his first time holding his daughter. And in that time and place, Padmé would be instructing him how to hold Leia with laughter sparkling in her dark brown eyes.

But she wasn't here. Padmé had been more than he'd ever deserved. That she'd left their children behind was a miracle he definitely didn't deserve. He vowed to cherish it, to not make the same mistake with them that he'd made with their mother.

Ahsoka then stepped back, shifted Luke up higher on her shoulder, and patted his back softly to keep him from stirring awake. Then she asked, "Now. What's your plan to overthrow Sidious and become the emperor?"

* * *

**AN: **Vader has entered the story folks. And everything just gets so much more fun (that's kind of a relative opinion) from here. If you read Force Distortion, you get this conversation from Ahsoka's POV. But for this story, I decided to make it from Vader's point of view because we've already got Ahsoka's insight about this plan. But what about Vader? God, he's so hard to write, but so fun when I write about him in a way that I'm satisfied with.

Also, did you see the trailer for the Clone Wars Season 7? OMG. Idk if my heart is going to be able to take this! Hopefully, the Anisoka fandom will see a resurgence, and we'll get some more great writers in the community. Honestly, I really just can't wait for all the new RotS works. It's my favorite Star Wars Universe Era because it's a shatterpoint. Any one thing changes in that time and everything changes for the Star Wars Universe.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review please!


	9. Ahsoka

**Chapter Nine: Ahsoka**

Vader looked at her like he didn't know what to do with her question. And maybe he didn't, considering he came here looking for a fight and ended up meeting his thought-dead children and getting a proposal for a truce to ally with a Jedi to take over the Empire. Ahsoka was still wrapping her mind around it, and she'd had months to think about it and try to talk herself out of it. But he'd agreed to it. For now. There were a lot of kinks to work out, and she wasn't stupid enough to trust him yet. Likely never would again, but figuring out how to appeal to the monster in him for the sake of good and taking down Sidious was enough for now.

Finally, Vader said, "That's something we'll have to discuss once we leave here. I've already lingered here long enough for someone to be suspicious. And that's without how we're going to stage your leaving here and making it look like there was a struggle."

"Your men would question you?" Ahsoka asked because she'd heard the whispers about his new reputation. Questioning Vader was an indulgence that could get you killed. A significant change from the man Ahsoka had once known.

"No. They wouldn't," Vader said, confirming what she already knew. "But the emperor has spies everywhere. There are a plethora of people who would sell their souls to gain favor with him."

"Well, if you had learned anything about discretion over the years and not brought an entire fleet to come after me, this would be a lot easier," Ahsoka pointed out dryly as she laid Luke on the couch for now.

"You insult my intelligence and competence if you think I was bringing anything less to deal with the likes of you. I witnessed your terror at the end of the Clone Wars, and you somehow managed to outrun and hide from the Empire for two years with two extremely Force-sensitive younglings. I wasn't giving you any chance to slip from my grasp."

"Flattered," Ahsoka said as she crossed her arms and cocked a hip. "So how are we getting out of here, _my lord_?"

His expression toward her hardened. "We're going to stage your grand escape. Despite the presence of an entire fleet sent to capture you, you manage to steal a ship, get past the blockade, and escape my clutches. From which point, you'll go to the coordinates to a supply outpost that's scheduled to rendezvous for a standard delivery to my flagship, a delivery that you'll be smuggled in on. That way, not even the Emperor will be any the wiser."

Ahsoka huffed. "That's going to be an interesting trip with the twins."

"The twins won't be with you. They'll be waiting with me on my flagship for you to rendezvous."

Without remembering exactly who she was talking to, Ahsoka balked and snapped, "You must have lost whatever sanity the dark side left in you if you think I'm letting you take _my _younglings _anywhere _without me for even ten seconds. Let alone the number of rotations it would take to rendezvous with you again."

"They're _not _your younglings. You're not their mother," Vader spat, and Ahsoka felt the jealous rage of the dark side begin to well up in him; the same jealous rage that the Force had warned her of but that she hadn't paid much attention to in the seconds before he choked Padmé. Rather than make her back down in caution, it made her argue the point more.

"I know that. I don't need you to remind me. I feel guilty enough about it as it is," Ahsoka said quietly, resisting the urge to avoid Vader's gaze because as much as Padmé's death had been his fault, she carried some of the responsibility for that too.

"And I thank you for whatever sense of obligation you had that made you take them into your care, but you're relieved of it now."

"It's not some sense of obligation," Ahsoka snapped back. "It was at first, but…"

"You're attached to them."

Ahsoka supposed she shouldn't be surprised that Vader knew that. She'd revealed as much when she threatened him earlier.

"Yes. And you're going to be like your Sith master and use them, your own children, against me?"

"As if that's not exactly what you were doing a few moments ago."

"For their sake. To protect them from you if I have to."

"Which is exactly why I can't trust that this isn't some elaborate trick for you to escape and take them somewhere into hiding even further out my reach."

"And how do I know you aren't humoring me, so I hand them over for you to take them straight to Sidious?"

The jealous rage that Ahsoka sensed welling up in him began to boil over. Instinctively she stepped forward to take Leia from his grasp, only for him to back away and slowly lift a hand towards her.

"See," she said, pausing midstep but still looking Vader in his yellow eyes. "This is why I can't trust you with them. The last time you flew into a jealous rage, you almost killed them before they were even born. Until you learn to control this power of yours instead of letting it control you, you're a danger to them. I won't keep them away from you. I promise. But I need to be there to stop you in case you lose control again."

The only response she got at first was cold mental feelers reaching out to her. Though her instinct was to reinforce her mental shields and the rudimentary traps she'd begun to practice laying to catch mental intruders, she let Vader in enough to sense her sincerity. He retreated from her mind and lowered his hand as his rage simmered back down to something less threatening, though he still refused to let her take Leia from him.

"Neither of us can take down Palpatine on our own." The fact that Vader was openly admitting that to her was as close to an olive branch as Ahsoka was probably going to get. "But you don't trust me. And I don't trust you. We're at an impasse it seems."

Ahsoka sighed. She was guessing that was Vader's way of saying he needed collateral. Something important enough that she'd come back to him for it.

Ahsoka took a couple of steps back and slowly unclipped both her lightsabers from her belt, too slowly to intend to start a fight. Then she extended them to Vader, bottom of the hilt first.

"What's a Jedi without her lightsaber? It's a Jedi's life, right? And it's not like I can just go to Ilum and get more kyber crystals since all the known Jedi outposts are crawling with Imperials. And I certainly couldn't do it with two younglings."

Vader reached out and tentatively took the lightsabers. As he managed to hook them on his belt, he said, "And a tracker on your ship. And presuming that if you have Threepio, you also have Artoo, he comes with me so you won't be able to find it and disable it. That ship goes anywhere other than the trajectory I give you, and I come after you."

"Stars. If you take Artoo, I'm definitely coming back. Luke is going to be a terror to deal with if he realizes Artoo isn't with us anymore," Ahsoka said with a roll of her eyes. Luke barely tolerated spending the night over May's house without the old droid to play with.

Kriff. May.

Apparently, Vader sensed whatever conflicting emotions she had regarding the woman because he asked, sounding even more impatient, "What more reservations do you have to stall us now?"

"I… before we leave, I need to talk to someone."

"Who?"

Ahsoka sighed. As fragile as this truce was, she should have expected he'd want to know exactly who she needed to talk to. For all he knew, it was someone she intended to use to betray him already. That was fair.

"My…" Ahsoka trailed off and berated herself.

She wasn't confessing this to Anakin. But if this was Anakin, she might have just been a little embarrassed ahead of time because of the teasing he would have definitely forced her to endure. Her hesitancy about telling this to Vader was an entirely different beast. He didn't deserve to know anything about someone so important to her, even though she'd never quite returned the woman's feelings the same way.

Finally, she got over herself and ground out, "My girlfriend."

"You've got one chance to give me a suitable reason why I should care. Make it count."

"Because if you don't," Ahsoka began firmly, "she'll get worried if I disappear, report it, and the wrong people may investigate and take it back to the Emperor."

"When we stage your escape, she'll know."

Ahsoka resisted the urge to sigh. This truce was going to test all her Jedi patience if the last half hour were any indication.

"Vader. You owe me," she said deliberately. "She doesn't live far from here. I'm not asking for much."

He didn't answer or take his eyes off her for a long time, and Ahsoka wondered if he was trying to intimidate her into backing down.

She didn't.

"You've got an hour."

That was more than what Ahsoka had expected him to give, but she wasn't going to argue with him. That said, she disappeared into the back to grab the old duffle bag that she'd once used to flee here, packing a couple of changes of clothing for the twins and her two blasters. Then she sent May a message—knowing the woman would check it as soon as she heard the special notification tone she used for Ahsoka—and woke up Threepio and Artoo. She gave both strict instructions to be quiet before she gestured for them both to follow her. Predictably, Artoo began to beep in protest upon seeing who was in the room.

Even after years in close space with the droid, Ahsoka still hadn't picked up fluent binary, but she had a pretty good idea what the droid was saying given the last time he'd seen Vader.

"Yes. I know. I'll explain it later. Don't worry," Ahsoka said dismissively as she went into the kitchen and packed jars of food for a couple of days for the twins. Frankly, she sometimes missed the days where the only thing she needed to gather before heading out were her lightsabers.

Artoo continued to beep in protest, which made Ahsoka say after she handed the bag to Threepio and as she picked up Luke, "I guess now is a bad time to mention that you and Threepio will be going with him as collateral for the next couple of days."

Neither Threepio nor Artoo were fans of that idea, but Ahsoka ignored their protests as she turned to Vader and gestured for him to hand her Leia. Again, he seemed resistant to the idea, but Ahsoka gave him a wry look and said, "Come on. You need to put your mask back on. You can have one of them back after so it can look like you're threatening me with them or something."

Reluctantly, he passed Leia back to her, and a tension Ahsoka hadn't noticed eased out of her shoulders once she was back in her arms—only to return once Vader's mask and helmet were on and she passed Luke to him this time.

Finally, they left the house, and Vader gestured for his men to surround them. But instead of walking her to the shuttle nearby, he discreetly let her lead the way to May's house; a walk that, while already short, seemed much shorter, knowing this was the last time she'd walk there.

The light of the May's sitting room was visible as they approached the house, and Vader made a motion for his men to silently secure its perimeter once they were standing in front of it. Ahsoka turned to Vader, handed him Luke, and then turned to Artoo.

"Wake the entire kriffing neighborhood if he tries anything with them," she told him, and Artoo nodded and beeped in the affirmative.

Ahsoka didn't bother knocking, using the Force to unlock the door and enter, though May would just assume she'd used the spare key she'd been given.

"Ashla," May said, getting up from the couch, wearing only her nightshirt. "I got your message. What's going on?"

"Hey," Ahsoka said as she closed the door behind her.

"Ashla," May said, walking over to her and grabbing her by the elbows. "What's wrong? You're shaking. And your voice is trembling."

"Is it?" Ahsoka asked as the gravity of what she'd gotten herself into hit her.

"Come sit down," said May, guiding Ahsoka to the couch. "Are you sick? Where are Luke and Leia?"

"Artoo and Threepio are watching them," she replied absently. Kriff. She'd just left the twins with Darth Vader.

"Ashla. Sweetie, what's going on? What did your message mean? What was so important that it couldn't wait until morning?"

"I…" Ahsoka trailed off, taking her hands from May and taking a deep breath before reaching into the Force, but even it brought her little comfort with the cold cloud of Vader's presence nearby. She took another deep breath, clenched her fist as she forced herself to get a grip, and made herself act like the Jedi commander and general that she used to be.

"May, I almost thought it would be better to spare you this, but that wouldn't have been fair to you and would have been the cowardly thing to do," she began steadily, taking the woman's hands back in her own.

"What are you talking about?"

"Remember a few months ago? When you were talking about how someone has to do something about the Empire? And I told you the best thing for us to do was stay out of it and hope that we didn't do anything to gain their attention?" When May nodded, Ahsoka continued, "You were right. I agreed with everything you said, and I'm sorry if I made you feel like I didn't understand."

"Then why did you argue with me about it in the first place? And I don't understand why this couldn't wait to tell me until the morning. Ashla, what's going on?"

Ahsoka gave the woman a sad smile. May always was impatient to get to the meat of a matter.

"Because it wasn't the right time to do anything yet. Some things had to fall into place first. And now that they have, it's time for me to stop pretending I can just watch all this from the sidelines and to be the person that does something about this whole mess. I might be the only person that can without making the galaxy a bigger mess than it already is." Sensing May's impatience, Ahsoka finally said, "I'm leaving, May. Tonight."

"Tonight! Leaving where?"

"I'm not sure exactly."

"Hold on. Ashla. How long have you been planning this?"

"Months."

"Why didn't you tell me this before now?"

"Because I didn't know until tonight that it was time for me to go."

May knew Ahsoka well enough to know that when she'd made up her mind to do something, there was no changing it. So the woman changed tactics and said, "I'll come with you."

"You can't."

"Ashla."

"You can't come with me, May. I'm going to go places that only a Jedi can go," Ahsoka admitted and waited for the revelation to dawn on May.

"Jedi." A pause. "Wait. Ashla, I don't understand."

"I know you don't. And I wish I could stay," Ahsoka said, though she wasn't sure if that were true. She'd spare May that truth, though. "But Jedi aren't meant to stay one place long. Especially these days."

"How are you going to fight the Empire with Luke and Leia on your hip? They won't even go to sleep in their own bed if you're not there with them."

Ahsoka laughed. "Well, I'd certainly have to get creative with my lightsaber skills."

May gave her a hard look before saying, "Oh, stars. You're not kidding. You're really a Jedi. You… Was everything you ever told me a lie."

"No. It was all the truth… just without pertinent details that I let you draw incorrect conclusions about," Ahsoka said. Obi-wan and Padmé would even be impressed. "But nothing about my caring for you was a lie. I love you, my friend. Even if it's not the way you wanted. Thank you for helping me find the will to fight again."

Ahsoka gave the woman a final chaste kiss on the cheek. Not sure how much longer she could test Vader's patience, she left and closed the door behind her. Vader was still waiting in front of the house where she'd left him, the twins still sound asleep in his arms to her relief.

"I'm ready," Ahsoka said but as if the Force were contradicting her, the front door of May's house flew open and the woman ran out of it.

"A—" The word died on May's tongue as the light shining from her front door illuminated Vader's figure enough for the other woman to see him.

"Go back inside," Ahsoka ordered.

"Ashla."

"You'd do well to follow her instructions and forget this night while I'm in a merciful mood," Vader warned.

It was a wonder the voice modulator and the mechanical breathing didn't wake Luke and Leia, but they slept through the weirdest things sometimes.

"May. It's okay," Ahsoka said turning to look at the woman once more. Then she gave her another sad smile, "He's my partner."

A myriad of emotions passed across May's face and through the Force. Too fast for Ahsoka to decipher, though she could certainly imagine what they were.

"I know what it's like to have your heart broken," Ahsoka whispered, echoing the words she remembered saying to May when she'd been apprehensive about having any kind of relationship beyond friendship with the woman. "I'm sorry I have to break yours. Please. Go back inside."

Slowly, May backed toward the doorway, and Ahsoka turned back to Vader.

"May," she said softly, just over her shoulder but without looking at the woman. "My name's Ahsoka."

* * *

**AN: **And so, the partnership begins...

Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading. Review please!


	10. Part Two: Chapter Ten: Plan

**Part Two**

**Chapter Ten: Plan**

Vader hadn't experienced a wait more agonizing than waiting for the supply shipment to come in. He'd hardly taken his eyes off the tracker in the ship that Ahsoka had "stolen" in her dramatic escape from the Empire a standard week ago. Even when he knew the ship arrived and that the supply shipment was on its way with her and the twins smuggled on board, the wait didn't get better.

But since becoming an integral part of the Empire, Vader had learned that there was no such thing as paranoia, especially when his master was somehow always watching. Which was why he had to go through great pains in Ahsoka's "escape" to make it look like she'd taken another similar ship, going in a different direction than the one she'd actually gone in. And why he'd killed the men that had the misfortune of being with him upon discovering her and his children. One thing Sidious knew was that he wasn't incompetent, and anything that even looked out of the ordinary could make its way back to the man and tip him off that Vader was up to something. He'd covered his bases. And then went back and covered them again if needed.

Finally, the supply ship came, and once it passed inspection, a personal shipment was delivered to his quarters on the destroyer. Also, nothing that was out of the ordinary. He frequently ordered machine parts to pass time when he had nothing better to do. It was something no one would look twice at.

No sooner than the delivery droids left and his space was secure from intruders and any ears that might try to watch and listen, he lifted the top of the shipping crate.

"Thank the Force," Ahsoka said with a sigh of relief as she stood, throwing the duffle bag she'd taken with her out first and then ducking back down and coming up with a sleeping Luke first.

She didn't hand him over. Instead, she surveyed the space before spotting a couch, kicked the other side of the crate down so she could step out of it, and went to lie Luke on the couch. While she did that, Vader looked into the crate to find Leia sleeping soundly on a soft blanket. He picked her up and put her on his shoulder, careful not to disturb her sleep.

Ahsoka turned around and looked at him like she wasn't expecting him to be there. Then she shook her head and said, "Lie her next to Luke. On her back. She likes to sleep on her back and will wake if you lay her any other way," Ahsoka instructed and then collapsed in the space next to Luke while he did so.

"Has civilian life spoiled you?" he asked.

"I could ask the same about you. Nice space you got here. Definitely a massive upgrade from what we got during the war. I suppose there are some perks to being the Emperor's fist, huh?" she asked. Without waiting for him to respond, she added, "You try being smuggled in a crate for an entire rotation with two younglings that have way too much energy, and then you can judge me. Besides, it's been a long couple of days. Give me some time to adjust here."

"You don't have the luxury of that kind of time."

"Vader, I'm not one of your soldiers. You don't get to order me around like one. You need something from me, and I need something for you. And until I'm ready to give it, you're just going to have to wait. Sorry if that's not something you're accustomed to anymore."

Force. They hadn't even done anything, and Vader knew that Ahsoka was going to try every bit of patience he had and hadn't had to exercise in the last two years. Anyone else he could just kill for the disrespect, but he couldn't do that with her. Not when he needed her.

"Besides, we've both waited almost two years. We can wait a little longer. Got a 'fresher?" she asked, and he pointed her in the general direction. As she headed there, she added, "I'm assuming that you're just used to wearing the mask and suit all the time, but if you don't want to terrify them if they wake before I come back, I'd take it off. That said, the strangest things don't scare them, and they might just think you're another droid."

Ahsoka left after that, and Vader assumed she hadn't been so literal when she said she wouldn't leave the twins with him for ten seconds without her. Then again, her bond with them would likely tell her if anything were wrong, especially while she was a short distance from them.

He took her advice and removed the helmet and his mask, the annoying tightness that he'd begun to feel when he'd done so back on Sheba not present since the air in his quarters was specially filtered for his damaged lungs and windpipe. But even then, he hardly ever removed the restricting suit. He hadn't had anyone to remove it for, nor was he interested in trying to make any connection with some stranger that would inspire him to remove it so they would see something human behind the mask. Let everyone see him as the monster he was, the monster he wanted them to see to inspire terror in them.

Somehow, between turning to set the mask and helmet down and turning back, Luke had opened his eyes and was staring at him with wide blue eyes. He sat up quietly, looking around the room before stopping. Vader felt something like concentration coming from the immature mind before contentment passed over him, and he turned his attention back to Vader.

Not sure what to do, Vader went to sit in the space Ahsoka had vacated, and immediately, without fear, Luke made his way over and grabbed his gloved right hand in his small one to inspect it.

"Hello," Vader said, causing the boy to look up at him. Then Vader felt a feather touch on his mind. Feather because it was so weak, but there was certainly no refinement in it as he got the distinct impression that Luke was saying "hi" along with curiosity.

Vader responded in kind, and at first, Luke flinched at his cold touch but then slowly reached to meet it. Luke's face lit up with a smile, and Vader pushed tap lightly at his mind again, not sure what such a young fragile and impressionable mind could handle yet. Eventually, the two simply contented themselves to go back and forth with the mental tapping while Luke sat in his lap to do so.

And to think that Ahsoka wouldn't trust him with his own children.

When Leia awoke, she was a lot more cautious than her brother and kept her distance from him, not even reaching out to him as her brother had. But he knew Ahsoka entered the room by the way Leia was suddenly distracted by something just out of Vader's vision when the wary look left the girl's face, and she broke into a smile.

Vader didn't miss the wary glance Ahsoka shot at him when she noticed he had Luke. She ran her hand through Luke's hair in passing before she went to the small kitchenette, a luxury space that had come with the space long before he'd taken command of this particular vessel.

"Please tell me there's something on this ship besides rations?" Ahsoka asked.

"Why?"

Ahsoka turned to look at him with her eye markings raised in an unimpressed manner before saying deliberately, "Because Luke and Leia can't eat rations, and they're going to get grumpy if they don't have breakfast."

Well, Vader supposed that made sense.

"And you wondered why I didn't want to leave them with you," she added. "Alright. How do you call someone to bring something from the kitchens? Shouldn't be too suspicious. You can still eat, right?"

Artoo helpfully came into the room to intervene before Vader had to respond and offered to send a request to the kitchens if Vader would allow. Ahsoka looked at him, and Vader made a dismissive wave in her direction before ignoring the two in favor of trying to get Leia to overcome her wariness of him. He reached for her with the Force and tapped gently against her mind only to receive a mental rebuff from her; one Vader could have easily overcome if he'd wanted to. But that would harm her fragile mind.

"Good job, Leia. You're already learning to shield yourself," Ahsoka said. "You would have grown up to be a Jedi Master in no time."

Vader was sure Ahsoka felt his anger at her encouraging his daughter to deny him and suggesting the idea of his child being a Jedi in the same breath. She was pointedly ignoring him, though. Time to put an end to that.

"Planning exactly how you're going to help me defeat Sidious isn't going to work if you continue to ignore me," he pointed out.

"We're not planning it right now. So unless it has something to do with the twins, I can ignore you if I want to."

"Well, you've had enough time to adjust. Planning starts now. What was your idea?" Vader demanded because she wouldn't have proposed anything without an idea first

"Better to start with yours. I've heard some things, but I'm hopelessly out of touch about what's really going on in the Empire and just how far deep Sidious' influence spreads."

That might be true, but Vader sensed the undercurrent of defiance at his demand. Still, she had a point he couldn't argue with, so Vader answered, "Far. Far deeper than I think even those who were most cynical about his intentions at the end of the Republic even knew."

"That bad?"

"He orchestrated the war and played both sides against each other."

For the most part, except for her tense trepidation when he dealt with the twins, Ahsoka had been an unreadable blank slate of emotions since she said good-bye to her girlfriend. But that got a reaction out of her both in the Force and in her expression.

She frowned, eye markings narrowing in concern, obvious worry seeping through her shields.

"How?" she asked.

"He manipulated Dooku's arguably noble intentions to create the Separatist conflict. When the war broke out, he used the opportunity and the public mania to grab as much power as possible without too much suspicion. He was all but an absolute ruler by the end of the war. I can only guess that he'd told Dooku that once he'd amassed enough power, they would deal with the Jedi threat, end the war, and they'd both rule the galaxy and fix the gross maladies of the Republic," Vader explained. He didn't have to continue. Ahsoka was always quick on the uptake.

"But that was never Sidious' plan. He betrayed Dooku, and then when you killed Dooku, he decided to make you his next apprentice to do his dirty work by telling you the same lies he told Dooku. I suppose," Ahsoka said bluntly, trying sound matter-of-fact. Still, Vader sensed the barely controlled rage and hatred for both himself and what Sidious had done seeping from behind her shields.

He decided not to address her statement. As much as he had no plans to let go of the liberating power of the dark side and the Sith way, he could swallow his pride enough to admit to himself that he'd been tricked and was now just the latest and most powerful in a long line of Sidious' tools. He wouldn't admit that to Ahsoka, though.

"Even if I were strong enough to kill him, Sidious' death wouldn't solve any of the problems with all his fanatic servants, governors, and dark adepts running around. They'd all revolt, even if I tried to claim the throne by virtue of being his killer. I'd have no Empire to rule because it would fall apart, and the Galaxy would fall into a bunch of mini warring states that would take centuries to bring together again. That or the loyalist party from the Republic would make a grab to restore it and make things even worse," Vader explained.

"Kriff," Ahsoka as she scooped Leia up in her arms and fell in the seat next to him with the gravity of the information he'd given her.

"Now are you still so eager to do this while clinging on to you Jedi ideals?" Vader asked.

"I hold my Jedi ideals about as dear as you held them at the end of the war. Doesn't mean I intend to be your Sith apprentice though or that I even need to in order to take Sidious to task," Ahsoka replied sternly.

Vader couldn't say he was surprised at her stubbornness. Besides, if her faith was shaken that easily, it meant she wouldn't be as strong of a Sith as he thought she'd make. Things like this took patience. Hopefully, she didn't test his patience so much that he killed her.

"So, what was your plan?" Ahsoka asked, interrupting his musings.

"Consolidate military power until the bulk of the fleet is more loyal to me than they are to Sidious, who keeps himself secluded on Coruscant with the political elite. When I kill him, some of the politicians and more fanatical moffs will make a fuss, but I'll have the power of the fleet on my side and easily be able to silence any that might try to contest me."

He sensed what felt like surprise from her before she finally responded, "That's… actually a good plan. A military coup as opposed to the political coup that Sidious used."

"I'm not the mindless, rabid attack dog that Imperial propaganda would have the galaxy to believe," he growled.

"Well, considering the last time we met before our little family reunion, can you blame me?" Ahsoka asked and then said, "And stop projecting like that. The twins can't handle your unfettered emotions. Especially your anger and hate at everything that comes out my mouth that you think is a slight against you."

So used to not having to exercise any restraint over his emotions and Force signature, Vader hadn't even noticed he was projecting them. Or that Luke had stopped playing the mental tapping game and retreated behind mental shields that weren't his own, but Ahsoka's. She'd wrapped a protective shield around both children's minds.

"If you want me to keep bringing them around, you're going to have to get that under control," Ahsoka said bluntly. "I won't let you corrupt them. Not even accidently."

"You call it corruption. I call it liberation. Besides, I won't ever need to once I've turned you."

She smirked at him, already rising to the challenge. "You'll try. That I'm sure of."

"So what was your idea? Besides getting me as your ally?"

"Raising a rebellion and going to war with the Empire."

"That's it?" Vader asked. "And you were worried that I didn't have a plan?"

"I know it's a lot more complicated than that, but I was going to get in touch with some contacts and see if I could find out who was running things now and go from there. I was just waiting for the right time."

Vader rolled his eyes, wondering if he'd given Skywalker's former apprentice more credit than she deserved.

"I even know the names of who's likely involved, and I'm probably their number one enemy. The only reason I can't make a move against them is that I have no proof of their involvement. What kind of takeover were you planning?"

"One where we used the rebellion to go to war with the Empire with you as my Imperial spy, and once we won and took out Sidious, it would leave the way for you to take over as the natural successor. Of course, what you just told me makes that a lot more complicated," Ahsoka added.

"So you mean, in other words, you plan to orchestrate a war to bring me to power? Just like Sidious? Why, Ahsoka, I didn't even know a Jedi like you could be so devious."

She scowled at him. "Don't twist my words. That's not what I said. And why would I do that? An orchestrated war is why we're here in the first place. I don't even want to go to war. I just know we're going to have to because Sidious definitely isn't going to be open to sitting down to negotiate."

"Now you're sounding like the Sep—" Vader cut himself off as he paused to think about his own words instead of trying to get a rise out of Ahsoka. "Wait. That's actually…"

"…not a bad idea," Ahsoka finished as they both came to the same conclusion simultaneously.

Why come up with a new plan when Sidious' plan-the plan that Vader was sure Dooku thought was the plan anyway-would work?

"You raise a rebellion. I gain the fleet's loyalties. Your rebellion goes to war with the Empire as a distraction so I can use the chaos and unfortunate casualties to put my allies in the right positions…"

"And we take Sidious' Empire right from under his nose."

"Killing him would only be a necessary formality."

"It's going to be a lot more complicated than that, of course. And a lot of meticulous planning. Something you've never been good at," Ahsoka pointed out.

Vader decided to ignore, again, Ahsoka pointing out his weaknesses.

"No matter," he said with a shrug. "The planning will give you time."

"Time to do what?"

Vader huffed and asked derisively, "When's the last time you were in a fight, Ahsoka?" Without waiting for her to answer, he continued, "You'll be training with me."

"I told you—"

"Not my Sith apprentice. Duly noted," Vader responded as a droid entered the space with the food she'd ordered. Based on his observations of her interactions with them so far, he knew there was no point in trying to continue this conversation while Luke and Leia had her attention. They'd have to finish this discussion later, but he would impress this point on her first. "If you're going raise a rebellion and be my ally, though, I'll be making sure you're nothing less than an unstoppable force."

* * *

**AN: **I think a lot of the Star Wars fandom overestimates exactly what anyone, including the Jedi, knew about the fallout of the war in the end. Those that survived all knew that something had gone spectacularly wrong, but they didn't know exactly how. Most didn't even know Palpatine was the Sith Lord. Years later, unless they had the misfortune of running into him, many didn't know exactly who Darth Vader was, especially since he wasn't always in the public eye. It's the conspiracy of the ages that in canon I doubt in the characters have a full picture of except, well, Sidious and Vader. And even Vader has to go snooping around for or stumbling into a lot of the stuff Sidious hides from him.

These chapters are fun to write because what both of these characters really probably need to do is go see a therapist and get all this animosity out. What they're going to do is just make mean, shady comments to each other until things blow up spectacularly, and they have to act with some semblance of maturity. With no Obi-wan and no Padmé to be the sensible ones.

Hope you enjoyed. Review and follow, please! Thanks in advance.


	11. Beckoning

**Chapter Eleven: Beckoning**

"How do you expect to be able to help me take over the Empire when you can't last more than five minutes in a sparring match against me? You're more of a liability than even the Emperor's worst Inquisitors," Vader spat at Ahsoka, frustration coming through loud and clear from his voice modulator as Ahsoka found herself for the umpteenth time today on the floor with a red lightsaber at her neck.

"My sincerest apologies," Ahsoka snapped, undaunted by the lightsaber. "But it's not like I had a lot of time to work out or consistently practice my katas or anything to keep my endurance and strength when I spent my spare time raising your kids because you were too drunk on the power of the dark side and busy with the Empire to do it yourself."

The explanation was as much a response to his frustration as it was to her own. She knew how to fight. She knew that her body was much more capable than what it seemed to be willing to give right now. Yet even knowing that, even with the exercise beginning to awaken muscle and Force memory, her body seemed unwilling to cooperate. Just because she hadn't been sparring every day or fighting in a war didn't mean she'd been totally inactive or sedentary the last two years.

Vader removed the lightsaber, and Ahsoka got to her feet. Now that she didn't have a lightsaber pointed at her—she might have been defiant of Vader, but she hadn't forgotten who and what she was dealing with—Ahsoka added, "And you're one to talk. You wouldn't even last that long without your suit."

"Because of an injury you gave me," he snapped, getting the rise out of him that she knew she would.

"Stop pouting over it. It was an accident. You were about to kill Obi-wan, and I was about to be a collateral casualty. That's just the sorry excuse you use to ignore the fact that that suit is making your injury worse. You taught me enough that even I can spot shoddy mechanics. Your design?"

Ahsoka didn't miss the way his fist was slowly curling like he was about to attack her as he responded, "The emperor's."

"Well, I suppose that says a lot about what the Emperor thinks about you?" Ahsoka said, giving Vader a pointed look. "I don't know why, nor do I care why you haven't seen a medic that could probably patch that back up ten times better within a month. But if you're going to be my _ally_," Ahsoka continued, reminding him that he wasn't holding all the cards in this arrangement, "that's something you're going to have to deal with. Can't have you out for the count because one good electrical attack stops you from being able to breathe."

She was ready for the Force shove that came her way and raised her hand to push back at his power with the strongest Force shove she could muster. She just managed to stop herself from being overwhelmed by his power, but even she could feel her body struggling not to cave to it. Still, she stood her ground.

"That's another thing you're going to have to deal with. Controlling your stupid bad temper."

"I'm not a Jedi."

"I didn't say you had to be," Ahsoka managed. "I need your rage to tear this whole Empire apart if it comes down to it. But you can't just go losing your temper over every slight and attack to your pride because you can, and there's no one to stop you because you'll ruin everything before we can even get it off the ground. We've got to play the long game, Vader. That's at least one thing I think you should learn from your master."

He faltered, the same way he used to when he went by another name, and she made a point that he didn't want to admit was right. Then he retreated his power, and Ahsoka nearly collapsed from the relief it gave her because she didn't know how long she would be able to take that. She wouldn't give Vader the satisfaction, though.

"We'll take a break," he decided.

"Good. There's only so long I can keep telling the twins I didn't go anywhere before Threepio is unable to stop them from coming to look for me."

"They'll have to wait a little longer. I meant a break from sparring. We need to discuss the details of this plan."

"Well, can you do it over lunch?" Ahsoka asked, already leaving the sparring room. "I've got to tend to them."

"Can't Threepio do it?"

Ahsoka took a deep breath, trying and mostly failing to release her frustration into the Force before saying, "Maybe he could. But children aren't soldiers who you just give the bare minimum needs to. Lively as Threepio is, they need organic sentient contact. They thrive on it. So you can do what you want. I'm going to tend to the twins. You're welcome to help, my lord."

Even walking away with her back to him, she could practically feel him rolling his eyes wryly at the mocking way in which she used his title. No sooner than sensing her walk into the living space Ahsoka had left them in with Threepio, Leia exclaimed, "Mama! Luke!"

Luke was playing with the holocaster remote, trying to figure out how to eat it like everything new he got his hands on, and in doing so, he kept flipping the channel on the holocaster away from the children's educational programming that Ahsoka had left on. How educational it was, Ahsoka felt was debatable.

She reached down and took the remote from Luke. Then she changed the channel back and set the remote on the kitchenette counter and out of Luke's reach. Used to Ahsoka always taking something from him, Luke turned his attention back to one of the few toys Ahsoka managed to bring along with him. She'd very curtly notified Vader days ago of a list of items that she needed for the twins, one to which Vader raised an eyebrow at but hadn't commented on except to notify her that it would take some creativity to get his hands on. Not because any of it was particularly hard to get but spies. Of course.

"If you have something to say, you can say it rather than just staring at me," Ahsoka said, feeling Vader's gaze on her as he joined them.

He was completely out of the suit now, wearing more casual but still practically Imperial military wear, probably hoping that Leia would be less cautious and intimidated of him without the suit. While Luke seemed to have taken a shine to Vader just based on the fact that he was another Force user alone, Leia refused to have anything to do with him and kept her distance whenever he was around. Though Ahsoka assured Vader that the girl just needed time, even she was baffled by Leia's behavior. While not nearly as friendly as Luke was, Leia usually warmed up to people within a few days. Enough to interact with them, if not be as comfortable with Vader as Luke was.

Vader didn't reply, and Ahsoka supposed whatever he might have said was outside the limits of which the two had decided they were going to speak to each other.

Without anything to prop them up on, Ahsoka had taken to sitting on the floor with the twins two in her lap in front of the short coffee table so they could feed themselves. Leia immediately climbed into her lap, but Luke silently made his way over to Vader and pulled on his pant leg in a gesture to get him to sit down.

"Use your words, Luke," Ahsoka said absently as she began to read a datapad filled with reports Vader sent her about Empire and the people in charge.

Vader didn't care that Ahsoka was trying to get Luke to talk more and sat on the floor in front of the table so Luke could sit in his lap and eat like his sister.

"How do you plan on raising a rebellion when you can't even get through a day of training because you're worried about my children?" Vader asked.

Ahsoka wasn't even going to address his possessiveness and the way he continued to insist that Luke and Leia didn't belong to her. He wasn't totally wrong about it, anyway.

"I don't know. An answer will present itself eventually."

"And how do you know that?"

"You're here, and I'm here with you. And neither of us has killed each other yet. If the Force could pull that off, nothing is impossible."

Truthfully though, she was concerned about the same thing. Even May had asked how she planned to fight the Empire when the twins wouldn't go to sleep if Ahsoka wasn't in the same room.

She sensed that Vader had an opinion about that, but before he could give it to her, Leia somehow managed to flick a small piece of fruit from her spoon in Vader and Luke's direction. Before it could land on either of them or even soar past them, the fruit stopped in midair, instantly capturing the attention of the twins and Ahsoka.

Vader directed the piece of fruit back onto Leia's plate, and Leia, like she did anything to do with Vader, inspected it warily. Luke, on the other hand, gasped and surprised Ahsoka by patting Vader's thigh and saying, "Again!"

Vader raised a piece of fruit off Luke's plate this time, and Ahsoka sensed the exact moment Luke's mind opened up to an entirely new possibility when it came to the Force. No sooner than Ahsoka knew that did she sense Luke reach out into the Force toward the fruit to tug it right out of Vader's Force grip. Not to be outdone, the piece of fruit that Leia had been looking at warily began to levitate in the air by Leia's concentration. Then she flicked it weakly back across the room, breaking Luke's concentration and causing his piece of fruit to fall back onto his plate.

"Okay," Ahsoka said suddenly, sending a mental impression toward the twins that she hoped felt both like pride but also disapproval. "If you're going to play with your food, lunch is over, and it's time for a nap."

"What's the hurry?" Vader asked, not relinquishing Luke over to her when she stood and gestured for the boy to come to her. "You were the one so eager to stop training and spend time with them."

That wasn't at all what Ahsoka said, but he had a way of throwing things back in her face in a way that suited him best. It wasn't worth arguing over.

"Can you for once just cooperate with me when it comes to them? You know nothing about caring for younglings. It's not personal," Ahsoka snapped.

"I think it is," Vader said, getting to his feet, leaving Luke on the floor.

"Whatever," Ahsoka said. "I'm going to put Leia down. Let Luke do whatever he wants, for all I care."

"You're not taking _my_ daughter, anywhere."

"Stop me, then," Ahsoka dared.

As soon as the words were out her mouth, she knew she'd tried Vader's patience a step too far. Not even a second after the realization, as she tried to turn away from him, Vader yanked her right arm to pull Ahsoka towards him. In her surprise, she stumbled, and as she gained her bearings, Vader took Leia out her arms and into his own. Leia instantly shrieked and reached away from Vader back towards Ahsoka. Ahsoka grabbed onto her, but Vader refused to let her go.

"Give her back," Ahsoka yelled over Leia's continued shrieks.

"Let go."

"She doesn't want you."

"And whose fault is that?"

"Yours!"

"She's my daughter."

"You're Darth Vader. She's Anakin Skywalker's daughter. You said it yourself! That name means nothing to you anymore. If you're not Anakin, she's not your daughter," Ahsoka said as Leia's shrieks got louder. "Vader, you're hurting her. Let her go. This is the same thing you did to Padmé!"

Ahsoka hadn't been sure that was going to work, but Vader let Leia go, and Ahsoka stumbled backward with the girl still shrieking in her arms. Now Luke was crying, but Ahsoka didn't blame him. She kind of wanted to cry herself as she picked him up off the ground and put him on her other hip.

As she walked away from Vader, she said, "You can't just force people to do what you want in the name of caring or loving or whatever it is you think your obsessions are. This is why I won't trust you with them. This is why I have to be here to protect them from you."

She'd barely finished her sentence when Vader responded, "And whose going to protect them from you?"

Ahsoka stopped mid-step.

He continued, "You're so terrified of me that you don't realize you're the one that's the real danger to them."

"And how in nine hells did you come up with that?"

"Because you're the reason Leia won't come near me. She's not afraid of me. It's you that's afraid of me. It's you that hates me. And she feels it through your bond," Vader explained.

"Go kriff yourself, Vader. I'm not an idiot. You're doing this on purpose. I won't turn because of you."

That was a challenge she'd beaten right after he'd turned, and she'd decided she would never give anyone that kind of power or trust again. Maybe if Ahsoka kept repeating that in her head, she'd convince herself.

"No. You'll turn because of them."

Ahsoka wasn't going to stay to argue the point with him. Instead, she took the twins to the room Vader had blocked off for her and the twins and spent the next hour calming them. Once they were sleep, Ahsoka went and found Vader in his room, looking over one report or another. The instant she laid eyes on him, she pointed one of her lightsabers at his neck.

To her mounting anger at the man, he simply raised an eyebrow at her, unmoved by her action.

"Need something?" he asked, obviously just as angry with her as she was at him.

"The only reason that I'm not killing you right now is because I won't give you the satisfaction, even in death, of turning to the dark side."

"You'd try," Vader said, pushing his chair back and standing up with her lightsaber following. "Go ahead."

Ahsoka ignored that he was right based on their training session this morning while at the same time trying to control the frustration that he was letting her point her blade at him.

"Let's lay some ground rules," Ahsoka decided instead of calling his bluff as she extinguished her blade.

"Proceed."

Ahsoka resisted the urge to groan because even though they were now the same height, she still wasn't quite eye-level with him and had to look up just slightly to look him in the eye.

"There's a reason I don't use the Force around them because if they learn to use the Force, I can't hide them from the Emperor. A trained Force-sensitive is the number one way to gain his attention."

"An untrained Force-sensitive is a possible asset to the Emperor. You think I would corrupt them? There would be nothing left of them if he got to them, and they didn't know how to defend themselves from him."

"Fine. I'll train them," Ahsoka said with a roll of her eyes as she crossed her arms.

"Not to be Jedi."

"Teaching them basic mental shields and how to exercise restraint with their power isn't training them to be Jedi."

"Then, I'll train them."

"Out of the question."

"Teaching them those things are no more training them to be Sith than it is training them to be Jedi."

At an impasse once again, Ahsoka groaned and said, "Fine. We'll both train them. We'll schedule it together amongst planning how to take the Empire and getting me back in fighting shape."

Vader looked like he wanted to protest but said, "I suppose I can live with that."

"Second," Ahsoka said, "I'm going to close off my bond with the twins for a while."

"What's that mean?"

"That they're going to be grumpy for a few days. And if you're right about Leia's resistance of you being because I'm projecting it on her, we'll find out," Ahsoka said through gritted teeth. She hated that in a roundabout way she was admitting that Vader might be right.

"Good. Hopefully, it'll disabuse them of the foolish notion that you're their mother."

Ahsoka tightened her grip on her lightsaber as she said, "Well, I have you to thank for that honor. And don't get too excited. I'm not closing it permanently. Just temporarily. Until…"

"Until what?"

Until she figured out why, for the first time in years, the dark side was beckoning to her yet again. But telling Vader that was a giving him more control in this whole arrangement than he already had, giving him more hope that he could turn her and make her just like him and only cause him to redouble his efforts.

The triumphant gleam in his yellow eyes told her that she didn't need to tell him anything. He already knew. Otherwise, he wouldn't be so eager to have her as a Sith apprentice.

Rather than answering him, she left the room before she took him up on his offer to try to kill him.

* * *

**AN: **When I first wrote this chapter, I tried to write it in a way where Vader and Ahsoka were both mature enough not to fight in front of the twins or something. And then I remembered I'm not dealing with two totally emotionally mature adults when it comes to this stuff, and they certainly don't have the co-parenting thing down packed. In fact, they've both got a lot of suppressed emotions so they would absolutely get into a fight and fight over one of the twins because neither can control their tempers with each other. And thus, this chapter turned out the way it did... after significant rewrites.

Hope you enjoyed. Review and follow, please! Thanks in advance.


	12. Fear

**Chapter Twelve: Fear**

Ahsoka was not afraid of Darth Vader.

Maybe if she kept telling herself, it would become true. But she couldn't deny the fact that after closing off her bond with the twins that Leia slowly but surely began to warm up to Vader. At the very least, she let him hold her now, though she still certainly preferred Ahsoka. But she wouldn't play the mental Force games that Luke would let Vader play with him, quite stubbornly ignoring him in the Force. Which meant Ahsoka had to consider the truth that Vader was right that she was causing Leia to be fearful of him and that Ahsoka was afraid of him in the first place. The question was _why _was she afraid of Darth Vader. A question that surely, Ahsoka thought wryly to herself, most sentient beings in the galaxy wouldn't have a hard time coming up with an answer.

Regardless, it wasn't something in particular that she had to confront any time soon with Vader somewhere on the planet below them handling some dispute or another with his special brand of "negotiations." Five rotations so far. Just her and the twins.

"Just like old times," she said to herself as she ran a hand through Leia's soft hair. "One of these days, you two are going to learn to go to sleep without me. But today is not that day."

Like she always did when she managed to get up before them, she kissed both on the forehead, sending them the impression that she wasn't going anywhere before getting up. Even with Vader temporarily gone, there was still an Emperor to overthrow, and though she was gaining strength every day, she still was nowhere near the level of strength, endurance, and focus she had during the war. Maybe it would require war to get her back to that level again.

Just as she was about to palm the door to go to Vader's training area, the door slid open, and she found herself face to face with the very object of her fears. So much for not having to confront her fears any time soon.

The sound of his respirator filled the space between them as he waited expectantly for her to move out his way. When she didn't, he tilted his head at her, and Ahsoka imagined he was cocking an unimpressed eyebrow at her under his mask.

"Excuse me," Ahsoka said. Just because he was used to everyone giving way to him, a habit of his even before his fall, didn't mean she was going to.

"Where are you headed?"

"To train. The twins are still asleep. I should be back before they wake up for breakfast," Ahsoka added.

"Don't hurry. I can take care of my own children whether you believe that to be the case or not," he said curtly and used the Force to shove her aside so he could enter and brush past her without another word.

Ahsoka grit her teeth and pressed her lips together as she walked out the quarters and to her original destination while ignoring the tight clenching in her chest at the idea of him taking care of the twins without her and resisting the urge to want to hurt the man. Never mind that she couldn't even if she wanted to. Not yet, anyway, she thought to herself and then stopped in her tracks.

Not yet.

Where had that thought come from? Where had even that idea come from? That kind of thinking was the way of the Sith. She'd seen what happened to someone who chose that path up close and personal, especially coming from a not altogether baseless but, at least for Ahsoka, irrational fear of Vader.

Ahsoka sighed, resigning herself to something that she should have done weeks ago when she realized that she'd somehow edged closer to the dark side. Thus rather than engaging the training droids when she got to the training room, she sat in the middle of the room, hands placed loosely in her lap, and began to practice her breathing.

Meditating was not her strength. And not because it was something that Anakin himself had shunned and therefore hadn't really tried to teach her besides the obligatory ordering her to do so when a situation might call for it. She'd simply always had a problem with sitting still for long periods of time. The past two years hadn't helped, though she'd found other ways to meditate that strictly speaking the Jedi wouldn't count as meditating. The point of meditating, in theory, was to quiet the mind of all unnecessary chatter and find the root of negative emotions to release them into the Force. She thought she'd finally found a way to master this in her reclusion with the twins for the past two years. But really, all that had allowed her to do was not face her negative emotions. And because she didn't have to face them, because she had been content if not a little restless, as soon as the object of most of her negative emotions entered life again, there they all came back again.

Once her mind was still as it was going to get she probed the Force in askance about her fear of Vader. She wasn't afraid he'd kill her. After fighting in a war and regularly staring and then spitting death in the face, it was a fear that one quickly got over. She was, admittedly, afraid that he'd hurt the twins, and he'd proven her right weeks ago when they'd fought over Leia. She felt the Force ring with insincerity at the thought and frowned as she prodded the Force for an answer and received nothing in return except for silence tinged with the same insincerity.

She guessed that was a clue to examine closer exactly what had led to that incident between her and Vader. Apparently, it wasn't as black and white as she had dismissed it as being. Okay. Start from the beginning. How had Vader gone from being somewhat docile to her holding a lightsaber to his neck later? Start there. The twins. Lunch. Her being irritated that he was showing them how to use the Force and deciding it was time to put them down for a nap if they weren't going to eat. And then him losing his temper when she tried to take Leia anyway and throwing out baseless accusations.

The Force rang with both insincerity and an encouragement to look at something closer. She went over the incident in her head again, still not sure what the Force was guiding her to look at and so she took a few breaths and slowed down as she went through it in her head, paying close attention to when she felt the prodding the most.

The twins.

Lunch.

Her—

She felt the insincerity and encouragement there and frowned. Her? What had she done? Vader started that whole mess with his inability to control his temper. It was why she was insistent about not letting him be around the children without her.

There was that insincerity again.

Ahsoka sighed, losing focus and deciding to make sure Vader didn't traumatize the twins any further than he already had.

By the time she got back, Vader was out his restricting suit and had the twins in the high chairs he'd managed to smuggle onto the ship and was watching them eat breakfast while amusing Luke with the Force by levitating his spoon to feed him. Even Leia was watching in a mixture of fascination and wariness. The Jedi would have called it a frivolous use of the Force for certain.

Vader had them so entranced by feeding Luke, something neither twin had let Ahsoka do since Leia decided months ago that she could feed herself and Luke followed suit, that they didn't notice Ahsoka come into the room immediately like they usually did. Even though she'd given up on blocking their bond. Ahsoka swallowed the bout of irritation that she felt at that.

"You don't look like you trained?" Vader pointed out.

"I meditated," Ahsoka replied shortly, and finally, Luke and Leia noticed her in the room.

"Mama, look!" Luke said, pointing to the spoon Vader had levitating in the air before he opened his mouth to take a spoonful of whatever hot cereal that was his breakfast.

"I see," Ahsoka said tersely as she sat on the couch, trying not to be disgruntled that Vader didn't seem to want her around the children any more than she wanted him to be around them.

Eventually, Vader moved to the other couch with them, and she sensed him reach out to Luke in the Force. As always, Luke reached back and then fell quiet, and Ahsoka guessed Vader was showing him how to construct his own rudimentary mental shields.

"We train them together. That was the agreement," Ahsoka pointed out.

"You're sitting right there. You're free to work with Leia since you won't let me train her."

"I haven't stopped you yet."

"Consciously. But you're still the reason she keeps herself closed off from me," Vader insisted.

"I blocked the bond and suffered through whiny younglings for three days. She still wouldn't open up and reach back to you in the Force. It has nothing to do with me," Ahsoka shot back in exasperation.

Vader scoffed and rolled his eyes. Hard. Reminiscent of the days when he—Anakin? Ahsoka still wasn't clear about this identity crisis thing, and the dark side—was completely fed up with some gross idiocy he'd heard or witnessed. Ahsoka had to remind herself those days were long gone, and that man was never coming back.

"You blocking that bond that stopped your projection of terror of me to her, so I could go near her without her throwing a tantrum. It thus follows that that she's learned to keep herself closed off from me from you," he said in a very deliberate, sarcastic tone.

"Don't talk to me like I'm one of your soldiers."

"Believe me, Ahsoka, I don't deign to bother explaining the obvious to my men. I just remove them."

"So I've heard. And you wonder why I'm properly cautious of you with the twins."

"Since I found you on Sheba, please, graciously inform me when I gave you any reason to think I'd hurt the twins—Since Sheba," Vader added again.

Ahsoka was at least glad that he recognized he was mostly out of his mind back on Mustafar. Or if he didn't, that was going to be her argument. So she didn't argue as she said, "Three weeks ago when you decided to throw a temper tantrum and snatched Leia from me.

"I didn't start that debacle. That was your own fault."

"Clearly, we remember that very differently."

"Clearly. Because what I remember is you being unreasonable," Vader snapped.

Ahsoka got ready to answer, only to find she had nothing to say. Nothing vindictive or to rebut him anyway. And worse than that, the Force rang with the truth of his perspective.

"I've got reports to send to the Emperor. I trust I can leave them in your care without you poisoning them against me more than you already have."

He didn't wait for an answer and left, presumably to get his suit back on before he went to tend to his Imperial duties, leaving Ahsoka to simmer with what he'd said and the Force vindicating him. How, between a Jedi and Sith, was she the unreasonable one? The twins had been playing instead of eating, and she'd decided it was time for their nap. She got to make that call. When he'd gone insane, she was the one who'd fled with them and kept them from the Empire, reluctant about it as she'd been in those first few weeks. He didn't just get to show up, and because he was little more than their kriffing sperm donor until a few weeks ago, get to call the shots and try to take them from her.

That tight ball of fear—she loathed to call it that—that periodically came in her chest sometimes with Vader came back at the exact same time she felt a sense of clarity in the Force. And finally, she found the crux of her fear of the man. It wasn't what he'd do to her. Or even do to Luke and Leia. Because he was right. Besides being a general asshole, he hadn't done anything to prove her right. And the few times she thought he was losing himself around them, he backed off when she pointed it out.

She was afraid he'd take them from her just like he'd taken everything else she cared about when the Republic fell. And the only possible recourse she had to him trying was that they were attached to her. But if he managed to get them attached to him, Ahsoka might not even have that.

_I won't turn because of you._

_No. You'll turn because of them._

That's what her meditations had been trying to tell her. This wasn't about Vader. This was about her.

"Mama," Leia called.

Ahsoka snapped out her thoughts to glance the twins' way and saw Leia holding out the holocaster remote to her after managing to use it to get the appliance turned on.

"Turn it," Leia demanded.

"Please!" Luke added, barely able to pronounce the blended basic syllable.

Ahsoka took the remote and muttered, "At least you understand being polite, Luke."

Once she had the caster on the right channel, she sat down between the twins, and they climbed to sit in her lap and watch the bright cartoons, giggling and periodically telling each other to look at the screen. After months of trying, the two were finally talking more instead of using the Force to communicate. Vader took the credit for that since he didn't have the bond with the twins that she had. And Ahsoka wondered if she'd even been the one preventing that, a bond that might be able to motivate Vader to control his temper and be patient just like it had kept her from the dark side. Who was she to selfishly keep that from him?

By the time Vader returned, it was well after dinner, and the twins should have been asleep. In bed anyway. Luke had eventually fallen asleep on the large blanket that Ahsoka had placed in the middle of the living space sometime after for them to camp out and watch a marathon of the magical girl animations that she was still fond of and hadn't faced dramatic censorship by the Empire.

He glanced at them, camped out in the dark and watching a sparkling transformation before continuing on his way.

"When you're out of that suit," Ahsoka said without looking away from the holo, "Come back here for a minute."

"I have no desire to hear your unreasonable demands right now."

Ahsoka's immediate reaction was to snap that she wasn't always unreasonable, but this wasn't about her. She sighed. Vader had the temperament of a krayt dragon. That was for sure. But that wasn't changing any time soon, so she might as well act like she would around a krayt dragon that she might want to tame.

"It's not an unreasonable demand. I want to try something with you and Leia."

Whatever hostility he'd had toward her lessened as curiosity welled up in him. He left without an answer, but Ahsoka was pretty sure he was coming back.

When he did, she gestured for him to sit on the large blanket to which he raised an eyebrow.

"Come on. I'm interrupting me and Leia's show for this, so don't act all haughty," Ahsoka said as she muted the holocaster, much to Leia's disappointment.

"Mama. My show," the little girl demanded, pointing to the holocaster.

"I'll turn it back on," Ahsoka assured as she pointed to Vader and said, "Want to go to him?"

Leia looked at the comically imposing figure of Vader sitting on the blanket, and then shrunk back into Ahsoka's lap, causing Ahsoka to sigh. She sent something that was like a query through the Force, one that Leia answered by lowering her mental shields and allowing Ahsoka to feel the full range of the child's simple emotions. Joy and safety at being with Ahsoka. Fear that something would take her away from the person she associated with the former feelings. Not the typical clinginess of a toddler to their parent either. Ahsoka had seen that with May and her son. But something that was forming to become an unhealthy attachment. The kind the Jedi were so afraid of that they'd banned all attachments outright. The kind that led to the dark side.

Ahsoka sighed again and picked up Leia out her lap and hugged the small girl to her.

"Have I put this unreasonable fear in you, my love? Did I make you so overly-cautious of the galaxy in trying to protect you from it?" she asked aloud, ignoring Vader's bemused gaze on them. "It's okay. He's not going to take you away from me. I'm here."

For now, she was. Ahsoka didn't know what Vader planned to do once they finished planning, and she was back in fighting shape and ready to leave to start her rebellion. But that was Ahsoka's own challenge to face if the time came. She impressed the reassurance onto Leia and then pointed to Vader.

Leia still looked incredibly wary, but let Ahsoka pass her to Vader. Yet still, when Vader tried to reach her the way Luke would allow him, he received the same mental rebuff from her.

"I really don't wanna do this," she muttered to herself. But an extreme measure was the only way to fix the damage she'd done by inadvertently impressing so much of her fear onto Leia.

Ahsoka connected with Leia through their bond and then cautiously reached out to Vader's mind, only to receive the same rebuff from him that Leia had given him.

"Come on. Don't be difficult. This isn't about you and me. I'm trying to help you get through to her," Ahsoka said, trying to keep the exasperation out her voice.

Hoping she'd gotten through to him, she reached out to him again and resisted the urge to retreat at the coldness that finally touched back. That had been all Ahsoka intended to do, but then the black empty void at the place where her bond with Anakin used to be suddenly wasn't a black empty void. There she found the bond that she'd thought was gone and permanently severed years ago. It was mangled, no doubt, worn and shredded after years of mutual hate and rage at each other along with disuse. But it was still there. Which begged the question that if the bond was still there, then was Darth Vader really a replacement for the destroyed Anakin Skywalker? Or was he still there and still himself, just disfigured by all the darkness.

A philosophical question about this whole mess for another day, Ahsoka supposed, more concerned with whether this would help Leia.

"See. He won't hurt you," Ahsoka said, all the while sending a weak impression to the man that translated to her chanting "I'll kill you," over and over again. He sent something that felt like haughty amusement back.

That seemed to be the permission Leia needed because she unhesitatingly opened her mind up and reached out to Vader, only flinching back some at how cold his presence was, but allowing him to touch her. She didn't seem keen to play the mental tapping that Luke liked to play with Vader, but she didn't rebuff his touch, and Ahsoka got the impression that she was curious.

Leia set her curiosity aside, though, as she looked back at the holcaster and said to Ahsoka, "My show, mama."

"Fine! I'll turn back on your show," Ahsoka said, turning back on the sound.

Leia climbed out Vader's arms but didn't return to Ahsoka's either. Instead, she settled on the blanket between them with her chin rested on her tiny fists and focused all her attention on the cartoon.

"I can't believe you got my children into this stuff already," Vader grumbled.

"They could be into worse. They're not going to be building a podracer anytime soon at least."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

Ahsoka ignored that comment and offered him the bag of her cookies that she wasn't sure he could even eat from the damage she'd also done to his esophagus when she'd injured him on Mustafar. It was really a wonder she hadn't killed him, but she knew better than most that it wasn't easy to kill Anakin Skywalker. Both physically and in mind and spirit as she might have found out tonight.

To her surprise, he took one of the small soft cookies with a fruit jam center while asking, "You're going to be too lethargic from this junk to train tomorrow, aren't you?"

"Yep," Ahsoka replied with a pop of the last consonant. "That means you can have the twins tomorrow all to yourself while I sleep through the day."

* * *

**AN: **Progress! Ish... But baby steps. They'll eventually be best friends again.

As to why Leia responds so negatively to Vader because of Ahsoka and not Luke, it's just a difference in personalities to me. Luke's a little more curious, and Leia's a little more cautious and takes her cues about trusting people from Luke and Ahsoka. And though Luke warmed up to Vader, mom's feelings trump brother's right now. So until Ahsoka told her it was okay, Leia just wasn't having it. You can interpret how you want though.

Hope you enjoyed. Review and follow, please! Thanks in advance.


	13. Potential

**Chapter Thirteen: Potential**

There was a shortlist of planets that Ahsoka _never _wanted to step foot on again. That if they up and suddenly disappeared from the face of the galaxy, Ahsoka couldn't say she'd count as a loss. Mustafar was at the very top of the list. And she would have thought, all things considered, that it would be at the top of Vader's as a close second behind Tatooine.

"Now, will you explain to me what we're doing here?" Ahsoka asked as they stood on the landing pad of the hot planet.

"This is the last part of your training."

"The last part?" Ahsoka echoed.

Vader didn't answer and just started walking. Ahsoka followed, tugging on the hood of her cloak to attempt to shield herself from the blistering heat and to distract herself from the long-buried negative emotions her experience on the planet dredged to the surface. Her world was already shattered by the time she came here to confront Anakin a little over two years ago, but it was on this planet that she realized it had been shattered after she figured out her former master had pledged himself to the Sith. Where he'd almost killed his wife and unborn children in his temporary dark side insanity, and then forced her to injure him to the point of needing a life support suit.

The darkness beckoned to her, promising to soothe the pain and ache that came with the anger and hate welling up within, but Ahsoka took a calming breath and forced it aside. That day had been pretty kriffed up, but the outcome wasn't all bad. Ahsoka had gotten Luke and Leia out of it, as much as two years ago she'd never wanted children or dreamed of having them. She'd been a Jedi and eighteen at the time with a thirst for action and adventure thrumming in her blood. She still had that thirst, but two years of not being able to indulge in it to take care of the children left in her care had tempered it some. She smiled to herself. Amazing how things changed and yet stayed the same.

They didn't stop until they got to a cave in the hot rocky formations of the planet, a place where she could no longer ignore or cast aside the darkness that beckoned to her as it threatened to overwhelm her if she weren't vigilant. And that was saying something considering the man standing next to her could be a drowning sea of darkness when he wasn't restraining his power.

"What's this?" Ahsoka asked, though she already had an idea.

"A dark side locus," Vader replied. They both peered at the cave together in silence for a while before Vader finally said, "Ahsoka, I've done everything I know to do to turn you."

Ahsoka wasn't going to argue with that. She'd thought her Jedi training could be intense during the war, but she'd come to find out that Anakin had been holding back his raw power a lot more than she'd originally assumed he had. That or the dark side just artificially amplified his power. Regardless, Vader was a ruthless taskmaster. There was no weakness that he overlooked or didn't dangle over her head and taunt her with. No mistake she made that went uncriticized. No mental or physical boundary or limit that he would not push her past. Nothing he wouldn't say or do to get a rise out of her.

But Ahsoka was stubborn and determined if nothing else. And Anakin had never taught her to back down from a challenge, something that had come back to haunt him in the latter part of the Clone Wars when she determined he was challenging her. And she would make sure it haunted Vader.

There had been a lot of days where she wanted to throw a tantrum (She did, once, when he pulled a dirty trick during one of their sparring matches that cost her a fight she probably would have lost anyway. But she blamed it on being up all night with a sick Luke and lack of sleep), scream (She had when Vader dropped her in some jungle with only her lightsabers. The experience of continually defending herself from monsters and the sentient rat species with a horde mentality that she'd stumbled across made her experience with the Trandoshan hunters as a padawan seem like a kriffing vacation. When Vader finally retrieved her after three days, she'd screamed at him and had to resist the urge to impale him with the lightsaber she hadn't lost for his cruel smirk and dark amusement), and cry (On that one, she'd _never_ give Vader the satisfaction no matter how cruel he was. She just hurled cruel accusations right back at him). But she'd resisted every attempt he'd come at her with to push her to the dark side, and she had to admit the training was, while cruel, effective.

It also made her realize that though her Jedi teachings would tell her that Vader and Anakin Skywalker were two completely different people, that Vader had to destroy Anakin Skywalker to come into being, they were wrong. The truth? The truth was that Vader was simply Anakin Skywalker without anything to restrain him. No Jedi Code, no government to hold him accountable, no morals and no conscience because, in his grief and pain, he'd abandoned those. The only things to temper him were his own desires and self-interests, something that Ahsoka would always have to make sure to play on. What she hadn't decided yet was if that realization about Vader made this whole situation with him better or all the more horrifying. Because if that was true, this new persona of her former master, Vader, had been there all along.

That was something to worry about later. Right now, Vader's explanation about what they were doing here.

"If you can come out of that cave without giving in to the dark side, then there's nothing I can do to make you turn unless you decide you want to give in to its power," Vader continued.

His voice modulator gave little in the way of tone most of the time, but Ahsoka swore she heard something that might have been pride. Or maybe it had seeped through his mental shields. Regardless, Sith, she had come to learn, were strange and contradictory beings beyond even supernatural comprehension. Or maybe that was just Vader.

"What do I have to do?" she asked.

"That depends entirely on you."

Ahsoka was definitely sensing something akin to sadistic excitement from him.

"Have you been in there?"

"Yes."

"What did you do?"

"I created this." Vader lit his lightsaber for no other reason, Ahsoka guessed, than dramatic effect.

Ahsoka supposed a dark side locus would be the best place to make a stolen kyber crystal bleed. The fact that Vader already had a painful and grief-filled history here was a bonus.

"So masochism is an unspoken rule of the Sith Code, I'm guessing," Ahsoka quipped, "in addition to the sadism."

"Yes."

For whatever reason, Ahsoka found his reply amusing.

"How long do you think this is going to take?"

"That depends on you too." A beat. "The twins will be safe."

Ahsoka sighed, pushing down the fear that still crept up in her when it came to Luke and Leia with Vader. The fear that even though she was sure he wouldn't hurt them, she still wasn't sure he wouldn't take them away from her. Especially now that Leia had significantly warmed up to him. She reminded herself that he hadn't taken them or given any indication that he was planning to yet, and that it was something to face if the issue came up.

Ahsoka took a deep breath and steeled herself for whatever it was that she might face going into the cave before walking forward without waiting for Vader to prompt her or give her permission. She paused directly in front of the mouth of the cave before hesitantly making her way into it, and she once again had to brace herself against it less he inadvertently let it consume her. She walked further into the cave, or at least, what she guessed was further. She didn't have to look behind her to know that she probably wouldn't be able to see the entrance. Places like this were like that.

"So, we meet again."

Ahsoka didn't turn to face the person who joined her. And it was well enough because the other woman made her way around Ahsoka's right side and stood in front of her.

"So we do," Ahsoka replied to the same vision of herself that she'd met years ago.

She didn't look much like what Ahsoka had grown to look like as an adult. She'd gotten the same growth spurt as her future self, and that was about where the similarities ended. Her lekku hadn't gotten nearly as long as the vision, the stripes of her lekku had changed shape over the years like some togruta's tended to, and she wasn't as thin now as she'd been as a teenager like the vision of herself. But Ahsoka supposed visions weren't always entirely reliable. There was also the fact that Ahsoka didn't remember much of what happened on Mortis. But this? This, she definitely remembered.

"I see you didn't take my advice."

"You mean the part about never seeing my future if I stayed with Anakin?" Ahsoka asked bluntly.

"You left, but you didn't want to. Which is why you leapt at the chance to be seemingly by his side again," her other self said, voice echoing in the cave.

"Seemingly?" Ahsoka asked.

"You deny it, but that man is only Anakin Skywalker in flesh. The only thing that remains is Vader. If you stay with him out of some misguided loyalty to the man Vader destroyed, you'll only see to your eventual destruction. He knows it. I know it. _You _know it."

If Ahsoka were still as naïve as she'd been the first time she encountered this potential future of herself, she would have immediately gone on the defense. But a few betrayals and heartbreaks made her pause, especially since this version of her seemed to know her deepest fear. That she was in way over her head and that she'd get herself killed by Vader's hand. Or worse than that, get the twins corrupted or killed because of him.

"So you finally have sense enough to be afraid of him," her other self asked when she didn't answer.

"Yeah. But that's my own selfishness talking lately more than actual rationale," Ahsoka admitted aloud for the first time, even if it was just to herself.

While Ahsoka was pretty sure part of her was always going to be bracing herself for Vader to lose his mind once again, it hadn't happened yet. She'd been watching for it once she'd gotten out the way of his relationship with the twins, deciding to hover as a silent protector just in case. But instead of reaffirming all her fears, as she watched them slowly warm up to him; watched how he'd sit on the floor with them and teach them how to use the Force and help them reinforce their mental shields; watched how they'd stand on the couch while he went through reports and babble nonsense while letting then tug on his hair or examine the old scar over his eye; watched how he let them play in the long black cape of his suit; watched how now their faces lit up when they saw him; as she watched all that, she kept hearing Padmé's last words to her before she died.

"There's good in him," Ahsoka admitted, not just to her vision self but to herself as well after a long time of being convinced that the only good left of her former master was the twins he'd left behind. Padmé had been right. There was good in Anakin Skywalker. There might not be enough to turn him from the dark side or to necessarily make him a good man, but there was good.

Hopefully, it was enough.

Her vision self didn't seem pleased with that answer, though, and scoffed. "Oh, really?" she asked. "How about I show you that your fears are very rational."

"Show me what?" Ahsoka asked.

Apparently her other self took that to be an invitation as images came up around them in the cave. All of Vader in his imposing suit committing one atrocity after another. But the ones that really got her attention were the ones with Luke and Leia in it. They weren't the two younglings that just had their second birthday and were hopefully not terrorizing Threepio and Artoo too much while she and Vader were gone, but as young adults fleeing across the galaxy from the man that claimed to still be their father all the while denying his former self's existence.

Leia, the almost spitting image of her mother except with some of her father's facial structure in her cheeks, glaring defiantly as Vader.

_And now, princess, we will discuss the location of the rebel base._

Luke, dueling Vader and losing his hand, and then the horrible realization at Vader's next words.

_I am your father._

There were countless more. Planets razed and destroyed, the atrocities endless. And yet, those didn't matter to Ahsoka as much as the ones where Luke and Leia were fleeing for their lives, and she was nowhere to be seen.

The images stopped, and Ahsoka couldn't settle on being sad or horrified or angry. She decided on all three, and eventually they blended into angry desperation.

"What happens to me in that future?" Because the only way she'd ever leave the twins to fend for themselves while fleeing for their lives was if she were dead. And Ahsoka wasn't sure that would stop her.

Her other self didn't answer that question but said, "See. He'll destroy you and everything you care about. You know what needs to be done. And you're the only one that can get close enough to do it."

It was like those first few days after the Republic fell, the Jedi Order was destroyed, and Padmé died, leaving her with the twins. The overwhelming sense of sadness and betrayal. Fear of what happened next. And then the all-consuming rage and hate. Only this time, it was amplified tenfold by the dark locus around her, surrounding her, eagerly beckoning her to latch on to it. To use it to protect the ones she cared about.

Ahsoka might have fallen for that if she didn't have firsthand experience in the fact that the dark side protected no one. It played on all a person's fears and uncertainties and then, inevitably, consumed them until the very thing they wanted to prevent came into fruition by their own hands. And she also might have fallen for the vision's tricks if she didn't already have proof in his dealing with his children that Vader was enough like his former self that he wouldn't knowingly hurt his children.

"No," Ahsoka said, more to herself than to the vision of herself before her.

"What?" her other self asked quietly.

"I am afraid. Terrified actually. I have no clue what I'm doing, and I think I might be getting in over my head. But I won't let my fear rule me," Ahsoka declared. Then she looked her other self in the eye and added, "I won't let you rule me."

Her vision self narrowed her eyes and asked, "Me?"

"You keep saying you're my potential, but exactly _what_ potential?" Ahsoka asked, narrowing her own eyes at the vision.

The vision growled, took two lightsabers off her hips and lit them. Blazing red.

Ahsoka lit her own. One remaining from her stint in that jungle weeks ago and another that Vader had given her as a temporary replacement that she refused to ask where he'd acquired.

Her vision self attacked first, and Ahsoka wasn't sure if it was just because it was her vision or the rigorous training that Vader put her through that made the duel painfully easy. It was over in a moment as she managed to get behind her vision self and put both lightsabers through her from behind. Her vision self didn't fall, but disappeared in a dark cloud, the darkness around Ahsoka seeming to retreat after its failure.

Ahsoka turned off her lightsabers, despite the feeling this wasn't over yet.

"I knew you could overcome your fears."

Ahsoka turned around this time. To see another vision of herself, but less warped and unreal than the other. A little more mature but not much older. She was still a little different from her. No visible armor or gauntlets. Just wearing a black, fitted, midthigh, long-sleeved, double-breasted suit dress with a sharp V in the neck and a crest with diamonds in it on the braiding on either shoulder, along with a gold and red headdress that had the same crest in the middle and black boots with a tall thin heel that she'd only ever seen Padmé wear. Certainly, not a shoe Ahsoka would wear. She couldn't run or fight in those. The only thing on the vision that looked familiar was the cinched belt where the other woman's two lightsabers rested.

"Nice outfit," Ahsoka decided on.

"Thanks. It's one of my favorites," her other self said with a smile and without the echo of the last vision.

"Are you my potential too?"

"More than that. I already am you."

Ahsoka sighed. If she never had another vision, it would still be too soon.

"So what do we end up becoming?" she tried again, hoping for something less vague.

"More than either of us ever dreamed, young one." Ahsoka groaned and her vision-self laughed and added, "If I tell you, it won't come true. Don't worry. Everything you need is already in you."

Ahsoka came out the trance after that, able to see the mouth of the cave again. The dark locus now felt like an annoying background noise rather than the overwhelming tidal wave threatening to swallow her whole.

Vader was waiting for her, right where she'd left him, and Ahsoka wasn't sure that meant he'd never left or he just happened to be there as she was finished.

"How long was I in there?" Ahsoka asked she came out.

"The better part of a day," was his reply as he inspected her.

"What did you do while you waited?"

"Inspected plans to build a personal fortress here."

"You have great tastes in aesthetics."

He didn't reply to that as he carefully considered her. Then he said, "So even being subjected to the full blunt power of the dark side didn't sway you."

It wasn't a question, but Ahsoka still replied, "I told you. We're partners, but I won't be your Sith apprentice. I won't be _anyone's_ Sith apprentice. Or a Sith at all."

Vader crossed his arms, and Ahsoka got the distinct impression that he was raising an eyebrow and smirking at her under his mask.

"Then, I suppose there's no training left to subject you to, _Jedi_."

* * *

**AN: **I forgot how I came up with the idea of Ahsoka confronting her vision self. But I do know that visions in Star Wars are never what they seem. And there's so much ambiguity around that vision that Ahsoka had on Mortis of her "potential self." So I decided to play with it here as a manifestation of her fears.

Hope you enjoyed. Review and follow, please! Thanks in advance.


	14. Father

**Chapter Fourteen: Father**

Younglings, Vader decided, had no sense of boundaries when it came to their caretakers. Even as he thought this, he could hardly resist the smile that tugged on his face as he watched his twin children happily jump on his little-used bed (because goodness when did he ever have time to sleep while on a campaign). Ahsoka lay unbothered next to them with her hands clasped over her stomach and her eyes closed as she went over the finer meticulous details of their treasonous plot.

"Are you sure there are no other dark side Force users at large that I need to know about besides the Inquisitors and the dark side adepts you know of?" Ahsoka asked him.

"No. I'm not. But I've told you all the ones that I know about."

"And you said the clones are being phased out," Ahsoka continued. "So no surprise mind control going on that will catch us off guard?"

"Not that I know of. But just in case, a planetary deactivator of some sort and a trip to Kamino is already on my to-do list."

"And you're sure this arms and ship dealer will be discreet in his dealings with the rebellion?"

"I frequently associate with him for personal projects. It's no secret to the Emperor that I indulge in engineering as a hobby when I have the time. He won't look too closely."

"I don't want him to look at all."

"He's going to. But it's going to be right in front of him, and he's not going to notice."

"Speaking of the emperor, are you sure he doesn't have any idea that you're up to something. Are you sure no one knows I'm here?"

"He doesn't."

"Subtlety has never been your strength."

"Do you think I'm obtuse?" Vader snapped.

Ahsoka opened an eye to look at him and said, "No. You're one of the most brilliant people I know. But I do think you have a lot of pride, a bigger ego, and an even worse temper. You're going to have to do something about that. Or else the Emperor is going to goad you into something stupid, and all of this planning will have been in vain. You've got to learn to play the long game now."

Like Palpatine had done once already, was the part that went unsaid. Because his fear for Padmé's death had only been the tip of the iceberg in his master's manipulation of him. The rest of it had been carefully playing on the very things that Ahsoka kept pointing out to him that he'd have to keep in check. Restraint, as it was.

His interactions with Ahsoka and the twins helped with that. In the past two years, he hadn't needed to show restraint. As far as everyone was concerned, he was just the killing machine who had brought their Emperor to power and decimated the Jedi in one fell swoop. After being betrayed and left behind with nothing else to fight for, he decided to live up to their expectations. Surpass them even. Other's lives meant nothing beyond the extent to which they could help him succeed and solidify his master's grip on the galaxy. And when they failed, they were easily replaced.

That wasn't true now.

Luke and Leia were the last piece of a life that, as far as he was concerned, the galaxy was complicit in taking away from him. Two things that he'd thought were destroyed despite what he'd tried to do to save them. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt them, even though there was no boundary they would not cross when it came to personal space.

Then there was Ahsoka, who he was usually caught somewhere between fury and outright disdain toward, something that would have meant a death sentence for any other being. But unfortunately, if they were going to depose Palpatine and take his Empire without the galaxy falling into chaos afterward, he had to suffer through her biting remarks, unsolicited criticisms of his personality flaws, and outright defiance. Being in her presence these past few months had been an extended exercise in patience. But at least he was sure she was just as infuriated by him if the number of times she'd threatened to kill him and pointed a lightsaber at him was anything to go by. When it wasn't igniting his fury, inciting her ire was quite entertaining. And she was worried about _his _temper ruining all this.

"Anything else?" Vader asked, deciding not to address her observations about his temper.

Ahsoka opened her other eye then, hesitating before muttering, "The twins."

"What about them?"

She turned her head just slightly to glance at them, now sitting next to her and playing some game that would help them start learning to read Basic on a datapad together. And surprisingly not fighting over the datapad.

"What do you plan to do to keep them out of all this? You certainly can't keep them confined to a ship for ten years," Ahsoka pointed out. "The Emperor would find out."

Rather than answering her, Vader said, "For someone who keeps insisting that we need to play the long game, you're quite insistent on doing this in a decade. Even I think that's a tight timeline."

"It is," Ahsoka agreed.

"It took Palpatine at least thirteen years. Maybe longer before that."

"That's true. But that's because he had to wait for you. You've already got me. There's already a rebellion brewing that I just have to organize, and you've already got an army that you just need to gain the loyalties of by fighting with them while the Emperor sits in Imperial Center giving the orders without ever raising so much as a blaster to fight," Ahsoka pointed out. "It's doable. Besides, the idea is not letting the twins inherit this conflict, right? If we let it take any longer than that, they won't have much of a choice but to inherit it. And we disagree on a lot of things, but I think we both can agree on that we don't want the twins seeing a battlefield before they can even technically legally drive a speeder on Corusc—Imperial Center."

Vader resisted the urge to snort at that, despite the overall gravity of her words, as the memory of that argument came to him unbidden. His former self hadn't even disagreed with her at the time considering he'd been driving anything that could be driven since he was four.

"_So you mean to tell me I can pilot a fighter in a war, but I can't legally drive a speeder on Coruscant? Are you kidding me? They don't have an exception to that?"_

"_I don't make the rules, Snips."_

"_Only break them. All the time. But won't let me drive."_

Despite the fact that he hadn't done anything to give away his amusement, Ahsoka seemed to know it anyway and sent a smirk his way.

Finally, Vader responded by saying, "I'll figure it out."

"Sure," Ahsoka replied simply as she took the datapad from the twins, stood up, and said, "Time for bed. Let's go."

"No!" Leia declared to which Ahsoka rolled her eyes and started to reach over to gather the twins, but they scrambled out her reach and climbed under the covers of his bed.

The action caused Ahsoka to pause for a while like she didn't know what was happening before she said, "You two don't want to sleep in my bed tonight?"

The two giggled at her and pulled the covers over their head.

"Luke. Leia," Ahsoka prodded gently.

"Daddy! Come on!" Leia called.

"Oh," Ahsoka said slowly. "You want to stay with Vader?"

Neither twin moving from under the cover gave Ahsoka her answer, and she turned to Vader and asked, "Do you mind?"

She was hoping that he did.

"I don't."

"Oh. Okay then," she said as she started to leave the room.

She had just palmed the door when Luke and Leia pulled the cover from over their heads and chorused, "Night, Mama."

Ahsoka perked up a little at that and turned to look at the two with a gentle smile before saying, "Good night, little ones."

She left after that, though obviously reluctantly, palming the door closed behind her.

He let his eyes linger on where Ahsoka had been before turning to look at the forms of his twin children with the covers back over their heads as they giggle beneath it. He'd avoided Ahsoka's question before, but he'd been agonizing over it himself, particularly in the last few weeks. Though he'd tried and looked at every possible solution, he'd found no way to keep Luke and Leia near him and safe at the same time. Not from him. But from the Emperor.

While his new chosen path felt more liberating in some ways, the Sith had the same view on attachments and family that the Jedi did. The only difference was that the Jedi claimed it was out of selflessness, while for the Sith, it was out of the selfish whims of the Sith master. Because how could the apprentice be controlled and serve the darkness if he had a family to go home to. His attachments to his children would only serve as a way for Sidious to have a weakness against him. And that was the real loose cannon of their plan, even more so than his temper getting the better of him. His inability to let go of his attachments was what Sidious used to get him on his side in the first place, and he'd lost everything anyway. That couldn't happen again.

He glanced back to where Ahsoka had just left. Her initial resistance to letting him have a relationship with his children having gave way to a sad resignation at an inevitable separation because surely—and she was right—Vader wouldn't let her take them from him again.

Luke's and Leia's attachment to her and vice versa had angered him to no end at first. She was little more than a kidnapper who had usurped the place of the woman who his children should have been calling mama. Or at least, that's what he'd been sure of until three months ago, on the twins' birthday, two days after the Galactic Empire Day Celebrations that the Emperor had only let him get out of because a situation to continue solidifying the Empire's control in the Mid-Rim had been more pressing.

Ahsoka had made, in Vader's opinion, a huge, unnecessary fuss over a list of very specific ingredients she needed in order to bake some pastry for the twins. And then balked in indignation when he suggested that if she insisted on having a cake—a Coreworld birthday practice—that it would just be easier to request one from the kitchens. Surely the droids could throw that together for her. It was at that point that she'd explained in a longsuffering tone that it wasn't cake, but Naboo Birthday Pastry and that it had to be made from scratch or it didn't count. And then she'd added absently as she set the items that she did have out on the counter, _"It's what Padmé would have done for them."_

It was the first time she'd referenced his dead wife without a biting reminder that he was responsible for hurting her and that she held him responsible for her death, even though she wasn't sure his act had done the actual deed. And that's when she'd let her guard down and he sensed a wave of sadness mixed with resigned elation before she'd gotten a grip on herself and made herself carefully blank in the Force again. She didn't need his reminder that she wasn't supposed to be the woman caring for the twins, though she seemed to have come to enjoy the role anyway. And he supposed motherhood—though he didn't like to acknowledge it—suited her.

But despite her attachment to them, she seemed resigned, if unwilling, to let them go in acknowledgment of the rights he had to them over her despite the two years spent with them. If he hadn't witnessed her stand up to him to protect them; or watched her patiently chide Leia for her demanding tones; or watched her kiss Luke on his forehead when he cried because she took something from him before giving him something more suitable to satisfy his boundless curiosity; or let them sleep in her bed every night even after she ached from a long day of getting herself back into peak physical condition; if he hadn't seen all that, he'd question whether she was really attached to them at all with her acceptance that she'd have to let them go.

Ahsoka would give them up, let him take them from her, before she saw them hurt in effort to keep them with her. Otherwise, she might have chosen to try to fight him and flee before sitting to offer him a truce.

It was a lesson that he hadn't learned before. In trying to keep Padmé with him, he'd been blind to the danger he'd exposed her to in his ambitions. That couldn't be so now. Not if he were going to protect Luke and Leia from the Emperor. The Emperor and the galaxy had to continue to think he had no heart. He had to bury his heart and feelings deep along with the warm bonds he'd created over the past few weeks. He'd cast intense darkness over the pieces of light in his life, not to smother them, but to blanket them from view while he kept the Emperor distracted by acting like the violent, heartless, and monstrous enforcer. By the time the Emperor realized that wasn't so, it would be too late. In his arrogance Sidious would think Vader incapable of thinking something so devious and cunning as snatching the Empire right from under his nose with the same plan Sidious used to obtain it.

And the best way to make sure Luke and Leia weren't collateral damage in that darkness, even as it protected them, was to send them away.

But not tonight. Tonight, he thought as he put the datapad he'd been scrolling through away, he got to have a piece of the life he'd ruined any chance of having. He went to where Luke and Leia were and slipped under the cover with them while using the Force to cut the light. They laughed as they moved to snuggle close to him, Leia briefly hitting her brother to try to steal the space closet to him.

"Leia," he said, trying and likely failing to mimic the tone Ahsoka used when she chided Leia, and the girl actually listened, "No hitting."

Leia's response was to hit him before she settled down and dozed off.

He didn't sleep much, trying again to figure out if there was a way to fool the Emperor while at the same time keeping his children with him and finding none. After a few hours, he got out of bed and went to the room Ahsoka had taken for herself when they first arrived. Having a feeling she was still awake and being that she nor the twins gave him the same courtesy, he didn't bother knocking and put the override code in to open the door.

True to his feeling, she was awake and sitting on the edge of her bed, doing nothing in particular.

"Yes, _my lord_," she asked tiredly without looking at him.

"The Emperor could call me back to Coruscant any day now," he said abruptly. "It's too dangerous for you to remain here much longer."

"True. There's no more planning to be done at this point," she agreed evenly.

"You'll leave tomorrow evening on another supply ship. On its next stop, I've arranged for a ship to be dropped off for you. The registrations are clean, it can't be tracked and is inconspicuous yet efficient."

"I'm sure it is if you're the one who made the modifications to it."

"I trust," Vader began, "that before you go crusading across the galaxy to build your rebellion, you'll find a safe place for the twins to live and for yourself to settle with them between missions."

She suddenly sat straight up from where she'd been slouched and turned to Vader.

"Wait. I thought—"

He cut her off and said, "I'll keep the Emperor distracted and thinking nothing has changed, so he won't think to look for you in the first place. While I continue to play his loyal, mindless servant, you'll protect and ensure the safety of our children with your life."

Ahsoka looked like she was caught between a lot of responses to his statement before she finally shook her head and asked with a smirk, "_Our _children?"

Vader decided not to answer that. He may be trying to exercise patience and restraint with her, but Ahsoka was pushing her luck.

"You didn't need to tell me to do that. I would have done it anyway," she said, smirk softening to a smile.

"If I didn't know that, I wouldn't be entrusting them to you," Vader said as he turned to leave, but Ahsoka calling his name made him pause.

She had a hesitant look in her eyes, like she was debating whether or not she should say something. Knowing her as well as he did, he was sure she was going to say it.

"Can I say something to you without you threatening to Force choke me or something?" she finally asked.

"If I did, would that stop you?"

"No," Ahsoka admitted. Then she said, "Padmé's last words to me were that there was still good in you. Despite everything you'd done to hurt her, she had faith in you until the end."

Her tone wasn't accusatory, just matter-of-fact. That didn't mean the reminder of what he'd done to Padmé didn't sting.

Ahsoka continued, "For a long time, I wasn't sure I believed it. I was sure that the only good left from you were Luke and Leia. But these last few weeks… I see it. You may not necessarily be a good man anymore, but there's still good in you, Anakin."

"I told you. That name—"

"No longer has any meaning to you. Or so you say while claiming the wife and children of the man who went by that name," Ahsoka said with another smile. It wasn't mocking or even teasing. It was… something else. Something that her shields wouldn't let him sense through the Force.

Vader resisted the urge to touch the recently rediscovered bond between them, shredded as it was, to see if he could get anything from there.

"I get it, though," Ahsoka continued. "Thinking about back then, it's painful. Everything was so kriffed up, and there was a lot of shit we went through, and a lot of mistakes we made. And after losing what little we did have to cherish in those days, it would be easier to just disassociate and pretend we were never those people." Vader finally pegged her smile as sympathetic. "I wanted to do the same thing at first. Part of me really hoped I could stay on Sheba and be Ashla the rest of my life with my greatest personal achievement being to raise two beautiful Force-sensitive children and keep them away from the Empire. But I guess those experiences made us both who we are today, whether it's a worse or better version of who we used to be, regardless of what names we decide to go by now," Ahsoka finished quietly. Then she shook her head and said, "I suppose I should get some rest. It's going to be a long trip with those two."

"You should," he replied, turning to leave. He paused again without turning around. "By the way, you've gotten taller."

She snorted.

"Told ya' I'd be as tall as you one day." Then she added, "At least, without the stilts when you're in your suit."

Vader rolled his eyes. The Emperor certainly had a penchant for dramatics in his own way, particularly apparent in the designs for his life support suit.

"With or without the montrals?"

"The montrals count."

* * *

Vader hoped that as he made his way into the Imperial Palace, that Ahsoka had gotten the ship he'd left her and was long gone to take the twins somewhere into hiding. Though he'd given her a comm so encrypted that it would take a team of the best decryptors in the galaxy to decrypt, he doubted she would notify him.

"_I know we agreed that we couldn't afford to trust anyone totally, but that can't be the case between us. If this is going to work, I'm going to have to trust you, and you're going to have to trust me. No matter what it looks like we're doing. Everything we do is toward the same goal," _Ahsoka said to him before they'd smuggled her and the twins off his flagship.

With that in mind, Vader supposed no news was good news.

"Lord Vader," Palpatine said as Vader entered the throne room.

Vader made his way toward the man's throne, removing all barriers to his hurt, his pain, his anger, his grief, his hate towards Palpatine. Because that's what Palpatine expected of him. Palpatine was his master and had taken everything from him, and Palpatine knew very well that there was nothing Vader could do to take revenge for it no matter how much he wanted to, and Vader had nowhere else to go.

For now.

But Vader buried all of that deep in his mind under the darkness that just got darker and darker until it was all that Palpatine could see. The same as he always saw.

He knelt down on one knee and bowed his head reverently.

"Master, what is thy bidding?"

* * *

**AN: **Obi-wan's comment about Darth Vader destroying/murdering Anakin Skywalker has been a phrase that the fandom has been trying to unpack since he argued with Luke that it was true from a certain point of view. My take on it is pretty much what Ahsoka says to him about it at the end of this chapter. In essence, Vader's still him in many ways. Just a much worse version. And seeing it in that light gives Ahsoka some hope that she can work with him still.

Hope you enjoyed. Review and follow, please! Thanks in advance.


	15. Part Three: Chapter Fifteen: Breha

**Part Three**

**Chapter Fifteen: Breha**

Bail Organa put Ahsoka through great pains to set up a meeting with him on his home planet. But she supposed she understood the necessity of it when a long assumed dead Jedi contacted him out of nowhere. Especially considering that some of the supposed long-dead Jedi were now inquisitors under the Emperor's thumb, according to Vader. Also, especially considering that Ahsoka was getting in touch with him to kick off a conspiracy to take the Empire with Vader. Bail Organa hadn't gotten this far with so little suspicion by being stupid, that was for sure.

"All strapped in?" Ahsoka asked as she glanced back at the twins where she'd sat them together in the seat behind her and rigged the seat restraint to hold them both.

They didn't respond, both asleep and leaning awkwardly against each other. Ahsoka smiled. It had been a long few days in the confined space of her ship. They were probably exhausted. She turned back her focus to landing the ship after getting the clearance to land in a specific hanger of the Alderaan Palace. Once she landed, she directed Threepio to carry her bag while she gathered the twins in her arms, putting them on either hip while they laid their heads on her shoulder.

"Soon, I'm not going to be able to carry you both at the same time anymore," Ahsoka muttered as she headed down to the landing ramp of the sleek, heavily modified ship that Vader had provided her with. The style reminded her of Naboo's designs.

"Ahsoka Tano," Bail said as Ahsoka made her way down the ramp. "You can't begin to comprehend my surprise and relief when you contacted a couple of weeks ago. It's good to see you safe and well. I apologize for my paranoia but—"

"You don't have to explain yourself," Ahsoka, said trying and failing to shrug with the weight of the twins in her arms as she fell back on her old humble Jedi training. "I understand the need for discretion, especially in these perilous times. To be honest, if the situation weren't so dire, I might not have reached out to you at all."

"Yes. We can discuss that further somewhere more comfortable and with refreshments. I'm sure you've had a long, tiring journey," Bail said. "Anything you need?"

"Somewhere to lie these two down, preferably somewhere close to where we intend to talk," Ahsoka added. "A sofa will work."

"There's one in the office I intend to take us to."

"Thank you."

Once they were in the office and Ahsoka had relieved herself of the burden of carrying the twins, covering them with a throw that was on the back on the lounge, and directed Artoo and Threepio to wait outside, neither Bail nor Ahsoka wasted time getting down to business.

"Forgive my bluntness, but what caused you to reach out to me after all this time?" he asked.

"Truthfully, I wasn't sure if it was safe to reach out to you or if I could trust you at all," Ahsoka began, "considering what was happening that forced me into hiding to begin with. That said, I might have risked it if it were only my life on the line. But…"

Ahsoka gazed went to the couch where Luke and Leia were still sleeping peacefully, and Bail's gaze followed. When they turned their attention back to each other, Ahsoka decided to answer Bail's unasked question.

"They're war orphans. Their mother died after giving birth to them, and they're highly Force-sensitive," said Ahsoka, looking Bail in the eye.

Certainly as one of Padmé's close colleagues, he'd had to have been aware of her pregnancy. And though Padmé and Anakin had been under the impression that they were being subtle, Ahsoka was sure that Bail had known or least had a strong inkling about their relationship and who the father of Padmé's—then thought to be—child was. And there weren't a lot of reasons her teenaged self would have taken two younglings in rather than finding someone else to take care of them. Bail wasn't stupid, and Ahsoka wasn't going to treat him like he was. It would be counterproductive to her goals. But Ahsoka figured it was better not to directly admit to the twins' true parentage, even if she didn't think Bail would give them away. The fact that most strangers assumed she was the twins' mother was as much a protection for them as it had been for hers.

"Yes. There are many of those—war orphans. My wife and I adopted a war orphan ourselves. There were even more casualties from the chaotic period after the fallout of the end of the war. I'm sure you heard about Padmé. She was pregnant when she died."

"Yes. I heard about that. What a tragedy," Ahsoka said vaguely, but she was sure Bail got the point.

"That said, I can see your hesitance in contacting me before. But why contact me wanting to help with organizing a rebellion now?"

And there it was. The question Ahsoka was prepared for and had been rehearsing for months since Vader found her on Sheba and told her that if she wanted to raise a rebellion to contact Bail Organa. She wished she'd paid more attention to Padmé's lessons in diplomacy and politics when Anakin had pawned her off to his wife since those definitely weren't his strengths. How to use the right combination of words to get what you wanted, to deflect from the information that you didn't want anyone to look into.

Ahsoka supposed the best idea here was the truth.

"Vader found me," she admitted.

"Vader," Bail said, sitting up slightly. "He came after you himself?"

"Not me in particular. I think someone just reported a suspected Jedi without knowing who. I only just managed to escape."

"There were rumors that a Jedi escaped capture on Sheba," Bail said knowingly. "The report didn't say it was you."

"Yes," Ahsoka admitted. "Barely. The troopers didn't get a good look at me. I think anyway. Vader definitely didn't. Either way, with Vader after me and two younglings to look out for, I knew… I knew I couldn't keep going like this on my own. I needed backup. And out there, there were whispers of the rebellion and rumors about what senators and planets might be a part of it. Your name came up a couple of times."

That last part, at least, wasn't a lie. May had mentioned hearing that Alderaan and its senator might have something to do with the rebellion that was simmering. "I decided to take a risk by getting in touch with you after that. It was either that or risk being found again. I figure if they're going to come after me, I might as well give them a good reason to," she finished with a shrug.

"And how would you like to help?"

"You've got an intelligence problem," Ahsoka said wryly. "There are whispers about your rebellion, but most of them are false. If they are true, it's certainly not something you want overheard in a crowded market."

"Yes. I've been trying to work on that. But there's only so much I can do. It's been slow going…"

"While still doing your duties in the Senate," Ahsoka finished for him. "That's where I can take the burden off of you. I've still got a lot of contacts from both sides of the war. We can go over them together to make sure most of them are still good and narrow down the ones that might be willing to come over to our side. And I've got experience training people to fight along with being a hardened war general."

"We're trying to avoid fighting again," Bail pointed out.

"Trust me. I've had my share of war. But do you really think Palpatine will accept anything but blood and war for the galaxy?" Ahsoka asked. "If anything, this is just the continuation of a war that never fairly ended."

"We're not strong enough for that yet."

"But we will be. I'll make sure of it," she assured, some of the cockiness from her early Jedi days slipping through. "Give me a command position, and I'll have the right people in the right place in half the time it would take you while being preoccupied with the Senate."

Bail smiled. "Nice to see some things haven't changed. Perhaps though, we can go over the details at a later time. You must be exhausted from your ordeals. I've asked my wife to have my staff prepare a place for you."

"Thank you," Ahsoka said as she rose from her seat.

The space that Bail and his wife provided for her was spacious. A suite with a bedroom, a small living are,a and a 'fresher.

"Our home is your home. Feel free to move about. The palace is secure. No harm will come to you here," Bail assured as he passed Leia off to her after she'd put Luke down. "You can use the comm to have food brought to you if you'd like, rather than going down the dining hall."

"Thank you," Ahsoka said after laying Leia down. "I appreciate it."

After Bail left, Ahsoka groaned and let herself fall on the bed, beginning to analyze the conversation with the senator. Did she come off too forward? Or too reserved from the spunky, brash general that people had known? Did her reserved demeanor and careful responses come off as too considerate or suspicious? Ahsoka hoped not, and hoped that Bail would just brush her uncharacteristic behavior off as maturity from raising children the last two years and some lingering trauma and trust issues. Either way, this was going to be a delicate balance of push and pull to position herself as the leader of this organized rebellion. Force, this had seemed so easy when raising a rebellion was just something she was planning in her head back on Sheba.

Being that it was only early afternoon on Alderaan, Ahsoka took the time to go over what she needed to do now that she'd made contact with Bail. Her nor Vader dared to write down anything they planned, committing it to memory so that there was no paper trail for anyone to find or hack into and possibly report to the emperor.

She'd go to Shili first. Not only were there rumors of quiet dissent going on there, but Vader insisted that if she couldn't get her own people on board, how would she get the rest of the galaxy on board to oppose the emperor? Never mind that she hadn't been to Shili since she was three or four, but Ahsoka had given up arguing with Vader. He insisted on it, so she would go and see if she could find any leads.

Before she could contemplate any further, she felt the twins stirring to consciousness. Figuring they were probably hungry and might want to stretch out, she decided to make her way to the dining area that Bail told her about. A servant directed them, and Ahsoka found something that was a dinner buffet set out in a casual dining hall with too many things to touch and little nooks that caught Luke's and Leia's eyes. They went for the nooks first, and Ahsoka took the opportunity to inspect dinner and fix them plates while they were occupied.

She sensed someone else enter the room in the meantime but didn't turn to see who it was until she finished her task.

"Queen Breha," Ahsoka said, nodding her head in lieu of a bow since her hands were full.

"Knight Tano," the tanned woman with brown hair so dark that it look black and dark eyes said. "My husband notified me that you were here. And I wanted to welcome you myself. Do you mind if I joined you?"

"Ahsoka is fine. And it's your home," Ahsoka said with a shrug as she set the two plates down and then scooped Luke up as he started to run past her and sat him on his knees in a chair.

"Still," the woman said with a smile as Ahsoka lifted Leia into a chair also. "And if you insist on me calling you by your first name, please, call me Breha."

After they'd both fixed plates for themselves, Ahsoka sat in a chair between the twins and Breha directly across her. Ahsoka got the feeling that Breha came to do more than just welcome her but decided she'd let the queen start the conversation.

"Mama. What's this?" Leia asked, holding up some red root vegetable.

"I'm not sure."

Leia looked at it before scrunching up her nose and putting it on Ahsoka's plate.

Breha laughed and said, "You have a picky eater I see."

"Yes. My daughter can be," Ahsoka replied politely.

"You seem to be doing a good job with them, despite being so young. It was brave of you to decide to raise Padmé's children," said Breha bluntly. "I'm sure that's not something your Jedi training prepared you for."

"I never said they were Padmé's children."

"You didn't have to. Just like she didn't have to tell anyone who their father was, according to Bail," Breha said knowingly.

Ahsoka pressed her lips tightly together and flexed her right hand to get rid of some of her tension. Oblivious to her plight, Leia placed another vegetable she didn't want on Ahsoka's plate.

"Forgive my bluntness, and I certainly don't mean to come across as rude in your own home, but is there something you're trying to get at?"

Breha shook her head in what Ahsoka hoped was just amusement. "My husband told me you want to help him with the rebellion. I stay out of its affairs to have plausible deniability and protect my people, but I do what I can to support from the outside. Bail told me you've been on the run since Luke and Leia were born and that you fled from Vader just a few months ago. I can't imagine how terrifying that all must have been for you." Then Breha added, "As a young mother, I can't imagine how terrified you were for them."

Ahsoka raised an eye marking, still not getting where the woman was going with this. Thankfully, Breha continued before she had to ask.

"War thrums in your blood, young lady. The righteous desire to fight against injustice and tyranny. I knew it when Bail told me that you seem to believe the only way to end this Empire is through fighting."

"I'm sorry if that offends you and your pacifist beliefs. But all things considered, I'm not that idealistic. Your pacifism is a privilege earned because your planet's never had to fight off an oppressor," Ahsoka added, to quote her ex-girlfriend.

"That's a fair assessment," Breha said with a smile, "One I can agree with as Alderaan has not seen war in its borders. I think another thing that you and I can agree on is that war is not a place for children, and you can't prepare for war while also having to care for two children."

"I'm aware," Ahsoka replied. She'd been tossing around ideas for days about how to raise this rebellion while keeping Luke and Leia out of its crossfires, but nothing stuck. Not even meditation helped her to find the answer that she sought.

Breha nodded. "Then let me use my privilege to do my part in this fight while still keeping my plausible deniability. How about I offer your children the protection of the house of Organa?"

"Protection?"

"You'll have to go on missions often. And from one mother to another, I know you'd breathe a lot easier knowing your children are safe and cared for in your absence, even though I know you're still going to worry."

Ahsoka's first instincts were to refuse her. Leaving the twins here in the Core? Less than a day's hyperspace trip to Imperial Center and the Emperor? She wanted them as far away from all this as possible, even with the dark shadow of Vader's power that she sensed blanketing their presence and their bonds to him in the Force.

As though reading her mind, Breha continued, "The Emperor would never think to look here for them, if he found out about them. And we're loved by our people. The Emperor needs the core worlds to help solidify and legitimize his rule. He wouldn't dare make a move against one, especially to remove their rulers without undeniable evidence of treason against us. And even then, he'd be hesitant. His consideration would be more than enough time to get your children off-planet if we did fear something was going to happen."

"Hiding in plain sight," Ahsoka summed.

"To put it simply," Breha agreed. She paused before continuing, "I know you've probably suffered a lot of trauma over the years. It's probably hard to put your faith and trust in something when it seems like everything we've put our faith and trust in failed us, but trust me as a fellow mother. My daughter is a little younger than your twins. They'd be raised as Winter's friends and companions. Receive all the same care and education. And you'll be free to come and go as often as you need to and stay as long as you like. I won't take your place as their mother. They clearly love you." Breha's gaze fell to Luke, who was now eating off Ahsoka's plate rather than his own.

Breha's gentle kindness in many ways reminded her of Padmé, though the woman didn't seem to have her dead friend's reckless abandon and intense passion. It did a lot to ease Ahsoka's nerves.

Ahsoka smiled as she said, "You sure you can manage? Luke has a boundless curiosity, and Leia can be very demanding. And that's without their… special talents."

Breha laughed. "I'm sure Bail and I can handle it. And if we can't, I'll certainly contact you and beg for your help."

Ahsoka then frowned and said, "I apologize in advance for this again. But you are aware that if anything happens to them in your care, your life is forfeit to me?"

Ahsoka belatedly realized that in her short time with him, Vader might have rubbed off a little on her. Or maybe he hadn't rubbed off on her, and it had already been in her. Either way, she needed Breha to know the depth of her caring for Luke and Leia. That she wouldn't leave them in her care lightly. If Ahsoka would kill Vader for them, she certainly had no hesitation in killing anyone else for them. Ahsoka was sure the Jedi would reprimand her for that line of thinking. But they weren't here, and even if they were, she'd be hard-pressed to change her mind about it.

To her surprise, Breha just laughed and said, "Ahsoka, my friend, I would have never offered if I didn't already know that. I would tell anyone else the same, despite my pacifist beliefs."

* * *

**AN: **So, a lot about the rebellion changes with Ahsoka leading it. The first is that she's gearing up for war from the jump. Based on my research, there seemed to be some lingering sentiment that Senators who opposed the Empire could do something about it from the inside. When they finally got fed up with it nearly two decades later, and Mon Mothma had to flee from Imperial Center, they made strides in just a few years to take on the Empire for real. Ahsoka now has no illusions that they can beat Palpatine without resorting to violence. Then there's the fact that in canon, the Clone Wars had scarred Ahsoka, and she didn't want to be in command and ended up taking over intelligence. In this, she's still scarred, but her and Vader's plan requires her to get over it and take command again. And lastly, of course, Ahsoka's got Vader helping her.

Also, I don't think Breha gets enough story time in fanfiction. We always talk about Bail Organa and how he shaped Leia and the rebellion, but there's never any talk about Breha. To be fair, canon doesn't tell us a lot about her, but canon doesn't tell us about a lot of characters who get a lot more story time. She's just Leia's adoptive mother. So... yeah. I'm changing that in this story. Bail is important, but we already know that. But what was Breha doing while a rebellion was being raised with her husband at the helm of it? And now, what will she be doing while the mother of the children she takes under her care is at the helm of it. If you have story recs with her, please, let me know. I'd love to see how other writers interpret her.

Hope you enjoyed. Review and follow, please! Thanks in advance.


	16. Renouncement

**Chapter Sixteen: Renouncement**

Ahsoka had a feeling that she wasn't the only Jedi that Bail Organa was in contact with when she'd emphasized to both Bail and Breha that absolutely no one was to know about Luke's and Leia's heritage or her connection to them, and Bail asked pointedly, "No one? At all?"

It then became a question who he thought should know. And that's when she found out that Obi-wan was alive.

Ahsoka hadn't expected to feel as conflicted as she did when she realized that, and she was even more conflicted when Bail suggested that having him in the loop could be a boon to her keeping the children safe and out of the Emperor's grasps. Ahsoka didn't know if it was some kind of mother's intuition or if she was just that keenly perceptive, but Breha sensed Ahsoka's unease and suggested that before Ahsoka make that decision, why didn't she see Obi-wan for herself. That and it would be a good trial run to see how the twins would act without Ahsoka in their physical presence for a stretch of time.

Ahsoka agreed and the next day found herself en route to Tatooine with coordinates to where Obi-wan was staying. The only heads up that she allowed Bail to give her grandmaster was that he was sending an operative that could use his expertise.

It was odd, being so far in physical distance from the twins after years of always being with them, though Ahsoka made sure to keep their bond wide open for them. Truth be told though, keeping their bond so open was more for her sake than for theirs. When she'd left, making sure they understood that she was coming back, they simply laughed, kissed her face, and sent across the bond both the feeling and almost fully formed words, _We love you, mama_. Then they'd leaped from her arms, loudly yelled, "Bye," and chased behind the handmaid holding Winter and who was partly responsible for all three children's care. It was only a few months ago that Leia would hardly let Ahsoka out her sight even to go just to another room, and now they were secure enough in her presence that they were letting her go across the galaxy without them.

"When did I get so soft?" Ahsoka asked herself as she once again checked her bond with Luke and Leia.

Certainly, they were safer on Alderaan than they would be on Tatooine. And Ahsoka didn't think Vader would forgive her for taking the two to the planet he hated the most. She'd thought about just landing the ship in the middle of the desert in front of the coordinates to where Obi-wan stayed, but that would likely attract attention that Obi-wan obviously didn't want since he was hiding this far out here in the first place. So she left her ship in a docking bay in Anchorhead, rented an old dingy speeder, and went to the coordinates from there.

It was nearing nightfall when Ahsoka arrived, and she'd only gotten halfway to the entrance of the hovel before the front door opened, streaming light outside. Obi-wan came to stand in the entryway.

After she'd crossed the distance and was standing a few feet in front of him, she took off her hood, though she was sure she didn't have to. He'd undoubtedly sensed her, barely shielded as she was.

"Hello, Obi-wan," she said simply.

"Hello, Ahsoka," he said.

They stared at each other for a few moments. The first thing she noticed was how sad and beat down he seemed. How weary of spirit he was. The second thing she noticed was because of that weariness, how much he'd aged in the last two years. It wasn't healthy.

"When Bail told me he was sending an agent to get my advice on a matter, I would have never guessed that it would be you," Obi-wan said with a smile.

"I wasn't sure you were still alive until Bail told me," Ahsoka stated.

"Well, are you going to stand out there all night or are you going to come in?"

Ahsoka gave a smile that she hoped wasn't as strained as she felt it was before following him into the hovel. She sat at a small table while he grabbed her a glass of water, giving her a chance to observe the surroundings. It was neat. Tidy. Sparse. Very Jedi-like and different from what Ahsoka had become accustomed to over the years. Toys always in some place that they didn't belong, a blanket on the floor or on the couch from where Luke and Leia had been, crumbs from food, or abandoned dishes.

Ahsoka snapped out of her thoughts when Obi-wan placed a glass of water in front of her.

"Thank you," Ahsoka said, and they fell into an awkward silence. She should have expected that of course.

Even though Mustafar had been the last time she'd seen her grandmaster, she hadn't really spoken to him in longer than that. Not since Barriss framed her. She may have stayed with the Order, but she'd significantly distanced herself from anyone that had anything to do with that debacle in the wake of their betrayal and her hurt. Obi-wan and Master Koon included. Now the latter was dead, and it didn't seem right to hold any anger against him, especially when she regretted missing the chance to work that relationship out. But Obi-wan was here. And the fall of the Order didn't absolve him of how much he'd hurt her. Before she decided what she was going to tell him about Luke and Leia, she had to deal with that betrayal.

"I'm planning on raising a rebellion and waging war against the Empire. I'll be taking over a good part of Bail's role so that he can focus on gathering intel and directing me to allies in the Senate that will help me to set up cells and get some kind of working communication system started," Ahsoka stated bluntly. "That in addition to training recruits and acquiring resources. Bail says I should implore you to help since it seems he could never get you to commit to leaving this exile of yours."

Obi-wan sighed. "Haven't the Jedi waged enough wars that we shouldn't have been a part of, Ahsoka, considering how the last one turned out?"

"That's exactly why we should. We did this. The Jedi allowed Palpatine to rise to power right under their noses. We owe it to the galaxy to stop him because we made a promise to protect them and failed. And if not for that, you and I both owe it to the galaxy for the part we played in creating his most terrifying enforcer," Ahsoka said, raising her voice and feeling like her old self. The one from before the end of the Clone Wars. The one from before she'd been betrayed.

"The very reasons you're stating for wanting to get involved are the very reasons I think the Jedi, especially you and I, should stay out of it, my young friend."

Ahsoka wondered if the frustration welling up in her was the same frustration May felt when she'd been imploring Ahsoka to take a stand and fight. But at least Ahsoka had been trying to keep May and her son safe by pretending to want nothing to do with the fight. Obi-wan wasn't pretending. He believed what he was saying and trying to make her think she was wrong for feeling otherwise.

"Don't patronize me," Ahsoka snapped as her temper got the better of her.

"Ahsoka," Obi-wan said tiredly.

Ahsoka sighed, trying and failing to get a handle on her emotions before deciding that maybe the best way to get past this anger was just to let it out.

"I shouldn't have let him talk me into staying," Ahsoka finally whispered.

"What?"

"I was going to leave the Order. That day, when Anakin cleared my name and you all took me back after abandoning me when I kept saying I was innocent," Ahsoka said, hoping the words stung Obi-wan as much as remembering it still stung her. "I was going to leave. But Anakin talked me into staying until the end of the war and said if after that I didn't feel any different, he'd let me go and support my choice. But I should have left. I should have left, and I should have convinced him to come with me even if I had to find a way to drag him down the temple steps kicking and screaming. He hated the Order, but he stayed because he thought it was the only way to protect the galaxy and the people he cared for. I hated the Order, and I stayed for him," Ahsoka admitted in a whisper, blinking back the tears that began to well up in her eyes. "And look where that got us both."

Obi-wan was quiet for a long time before he sighed and finally said, "I'm sorry, Ahsoka."

Ahsoka huffed. "For what exactly, Obi-wan?"

"I tried to speak for you to the Council. But there was only so much I could do. The Council's hands were tied with the politics of the war. We could only hope that—"

"That what? That you'd sacrifice me, and the Order would continue to be in the good graces of the Senate for yet another day?"

"Try to see it from their point of view, Ahsoka. Try to understand that even though we were wrong, it only made you into a better Jedi."

"Their point of view doesn't matter when it was wrong. When the Senate was wrong. So, please. Spare me your undoubtedly noble justifications, Obi-wan," Ahsoka said, sarcasm dripping from her tongue. "You know just as well as I do that's all bantha fodder."

To her surprise, Obi-wan did spare her without so much as a disapproving look. Before, he probably would have—

"Your feelings betray you, Ahsoka. Remember ang—"

"No wonder Anakin didn't trust you," Ahsoka said, instantly shutting Obi-wan up. Her intentions weren't to hurt him that time, just to state a matter-of-fact truth. A truth that she'd always understood in an abstract way but understood more concretely now.

Obi-wan had good intentions. Ahsoka knew that. If she doubted that for even a moment, she wouldn't have ever come out here to see him. But he was a man of many contradictions. He had been as attached to her and to Anakin as they'd been to him, but that attachment could never overcome the restraints of the Jedi Order. The Order always came first, even when the Order was clearly wrong. It was the reason, even now, when there was no Order left, he still defended it. The reason Anakin thought his only option was to turn to a Sith Lord for help when he'd feared for his wife's life. Because he couldn't be sure the Order wouldn't condemn him for his fear and then cast him out with actual proof that he'd willingly broken their code, and couldn't be sure that Obi-wan would keep fighting for him. It's why Obi-wan had gone to Mustafar as a Jedi resigned to kill a Sith instead of as the brother who claimed to love him and would try to pull him back up from his fall.

And it was because to Obi-wan Kenobi the Order came first that Ahsoka would not tell him that Padmé's children—her children—survived. If Padmé were here, Ahsoka didn't think the woman would have trusted her children in the care of the Jedi, even if the Order hadn't fallen. Or maybe she would have. It didn't really matter. Padmé was dead. And Ahsoka had decided long ago that she couldn't raise Luke and Leia wondering what Padmé would do every step of the way. Padmé had entrusted Luke and Leia to her, and Ahsoka would no more trust Luke and Leia in the hands of the Jedi as she would the hands of the Sith. As far as she was concerned, they were two sides of the same coin.

It was also one more thing she didn't have to clash with Vader about. On not training the children to be Jedi, that was something they would be in full agreement on.

"Anakin's choices were his own," Obi-wan finally stated.

"Trust me. I know," Ahsoka said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. She'd spent four months with Vader, reminding him that he'd made those choices, how selfish those choices were, of the consequences of those choices, and what would happen if he made them again. And she would likely spend the rest of their partnership reminding him of it so long as he loathed to change his ways. "But just because Anakin made his choices doesn't mean it absolves us of the part we played."

"Perhaps not."

Ahsoka then declared, "I'm going to stop the Empire. For Anakin. For Padmé. And for everyone else that Palpatine took everything from."

"That sounds like revenge."

"Maybe it is."

"That's not the Jedi way."

"It isn't. But I'm not sure I want to be one anymore," Ahsoka said honestly. When she sensed his apprehension, she added with a roll of her eyes, "Don't worry. I'm not becoming a Sith or going dark. There are enough of those kinds kriffing up the galaxy right now. But maybe you're right. Maybe this isn't something the Jedi should be involved in since it was part of their oversight that caused all this. One of their own that betrayed them and helped facilitate their downfall and damned the galaxy. So I won't wage my war as a Jedi. If you change your mind about wanting to help, you know how to get in touch with Bail."

Ahsoka stood then, heading toward the door.

"It's not a good idea to travel Tatooine at night," Obi-wan cautioned.

"Trust me, Obi-wan. I've been through worse," Ahsoka said dryly as Vader's training came to mind.

She was almost to the door when Obi-wan said, "Ahsoka?"

Ahsoka turned to look back at Obi-wan, knowing the question he was going to ask before he asked it, even though she was hoping he wouldn't. She didn't want to have to outright lie to him.

"I heard what was officially reported about Padmé's death, but you were with her. What happened?"

"She died in childbirth," Ahsoka stated. "Just like Anakin's visions predicted she would."

Never mind that Ahsoka was more and more sure that Anakin's visions had been a self-fulfilling prophecy. Warning him of what was to come if he didn't change the dark course he'd started on.

"And her child?"

Ahsoka averted her gaze from Obi-wan. She really didn't want to lie to him. So she didn't. Let him assume what her guilty silence meant.

"Good-bye, Obi-wan. May the Force be with," she added. She was angry at him. Hurt. But not cruel.

"And you as well. It was good to see you again."

Ahsoka wasn't sure she felt the same way, so she decided not to answer as she left, closing the door to the hovel behind her.

As she walked to her speeder, she heard the words from the vision she'd had of the twins just days before they were born as their father pledged himself over to the Sith.

_Mama, can we be Jedi just like you when we grow up?_

Ahsoka frowned and shook her head.

"I am no Jedi."

* * *

**AN: **I always planned for Ahsoka to renounce the Jedi. But she was never going to do it because Vader compelled her to. Like in canon, it was going to be a choice she eventually made for herself as she finds her own way in this mess. And in this chapter, she does it.

This isn't the last we've seen of Obi-wan. And yes, Ahsoka's a little harsh and a little vindictive, but she's angry at the galaxy right now. Would this have played out differently if Obi-wan had decided to help her? Probably. But here he doesn't. Not yet anyway.

Also, I am behind on replying to reviews. I've been out of town all weekend but had this chapter prepared in advance. Thank you for your patience. I read all your reviews. I appreciate them. Please keep reviewing, following, and favoriting. I appreciate it.


	17. Diyannah

**Chapter Seventeen: Diyannah**

"You're a Jedi."

Ahsoka gave the young togruta girl across from her a skeptical wide-eyed look at the bold accusation. Then again, Ahsoka wasn't surprised to be confronted by the girl whose eyes she felt watching her for the past week.

Diyannah was her name. Diya for short. To her friends anyway—of which the girl let Ahsoka know right away that she wasn't when Ahsoka had arrived on the planet two weeks ago and joined the non-profit organization for displaced youth. Ahsoka hadn't been sure exactly what they'd been displaced from since Shili, isolated as it was, hadn't been affected by the war in that way. Whatever the reason, it seemed to be something everyone knew about but didn't talk about. And as not to blow her cover trying to find the leader to the small resistance that she'd tracked to the place, Ahsoka had chosen not to ask.

It didn't take her long to find out.

Slave trafficking. Officially, the Empire didn't condone slavery. Unofficially, they turned a blind eye to it so long as it wasn't overtly obvious. Not too different from the Republic, Ahsoka had thought wryly when she heard. But in the last two years under the Empire, the business had gotten an unprecedented boon, exacerbated by the new nonhuman discriminatory policies.

While the big cities spread throughout Shili were faring fine, the villages and rural cities spread across the planet were being ravaged. The larger, more contemporary and technologically advanced cities did what they could for those who escaped, pulling together to give refuge to any who sought it. But it was taboo to talk about openly with the Empire breathing down their neck, let alone make a big fuss about it. No one wanted what happened to Ryloth.

Diyannah was one of those refugees, one of many children and teenagers that lived in the main refugee facility.

As soon as Ahsoka arrived, people made a big fuss about how alike they looked. And they did except for the fact that Diyannah's facial markings were more star-shaped instead of diamond-shaped and the teenager was almost five years younger than Ahsoka. They were likely distantly related. But Diyannah volunteered as much information about her personal life as Ahsoka did—none at all.

"A Jedi?" Ahsoka said, deciding that the best course of action was to play along with the girl since no one was around. At least the girl had the discretion to wait until they were mostly alone.

"Don't play dumb with me."

"I'm not playing dumb. That's just one hell of an accusation to make about someone. A deadly one," Ahsoka added.

Diyannah rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Being a Jedi nowadays is already pretty deadly."

"That's something we both agree on. Which is why no one talks about them in the open."

"No one's around. And you make it obvious."

"No one else has come to me with that observation. So obvious how, little one?"

"I'm not little. You're barely a full-grown togruta yourself," Diyannah shot back. It was no wonder she was constantly in trouble with local Imperial law enforcement. "And that's because no one else pays attention like I do. If they did, they'd notice how weird you are for a togruta."

"Oh?"

"Your lekku give no tells, for one," Diyannah said. "Not when you don't want them too. Like now, they're unmoving and not giving away your curiosity."

"Maybe I'm not feeling curious."

"But you should be feeling something. I just accused you of being a Jedi. And you act like you've lived around a lot of humans before. Like the way you raise your eye markings. That's not something togruta do. That's a human and near-human thing. And togruta are social and tactile beings. You're too reserved and quiet."

"I've just been through a lot is all," Ahsoka replied with a shrug.

"Either way, you're different," Diyannah declared. "So either you're one of our religious priests or associated with them, an Imperial, or a Jedi. If you were a priest, you would have told us. Given the Empire's anti-nonhuman policies, I doubt you're an Imp. So that leaves Jedi."

"The real question, young one, is how is it and why is it that you pay so much attention?" Ahsoka asked, deciding to turn the tables on the girl.

The girl faltered, the twitch of her lekku telling Ahsoka that she'd caught her off guard. Ahsoka resisted the urge to smile. Diyannah hadn't been the only person paying attention. Ahsoka found Diyannah just as strange for a togruta as Diyannah found her. For all the girl's accusations of Ahsoka being reserved and quiet, Diyannah was the same. She did a great job of pretending, but there was something mechanical about the younger togruta's actions. And she always had this aloof way about her, like she was only physically present for social interactions, but mentally having another conversation.

"Maybe," Ahsoka continued casually, "because you being here isn't just because you're a refugee. Maybe it's because you're also using this as a convenient base of operations for a resistance."

Recovering her bearings, the girl huffed and said, "So what if I am? What are you going to do about it, Knight Tano?"

Kriff.

"How about we move this discussion to my room?" Ahsoka suggested calmly to the girl.

"Sure thing," the girl said with a grin.

As they made their way to Ahsoka's quarters, Ahsoka wondered if she'd been this obnoxious at Diyannah's age. She was willing to bet that if she asked Vader, if he were willing to answer, he would say that she had been.

Once in the privacy of Ahsoka's quarters, Ahsoka directed Diyannah to sit down in a chair and demanded, "Alright. What do you know, when did you know it, and how do did you know it?"

Diyannah shrugged. "A feeling."

Ahsoka raised one of her eye markings, only to immediately lower it because that was apparently something humans did.

Diyannah huffed, "I followed the war very closely for years."

"You followed it? You couldn't have been what? No more than nine when it started."

"Yeah. But our village was one of the ones that got hit early on by the slavers who decided to take advantage of the fact that the Republic had other concerns. And before you ask, yes, Shili put in a request for aid. Hundreds of systems did and thousands of individual planets, but the Republic picked and chose who they wanted to help. Who provided a strategic war strategy," Diyannah explained.

Ahsoka was more than familiar with the politics of the war. Even if she'd wanted to, that was a point that she couldn't argue. Instead, she asked, "Our village?"

"Why do you think we look alike? We're probably related one way or another. People talked about you, you know. It was a great source of pride for our village that one of our own went to become a Jedi."

"But not to you?" asked Ahsoka.

"I think you more than anyone can understand why I'm less than impressed by the Jedi," the girl said wryly. "I followed what they did to you. It's a wonder you stayed. I would have left the Jedi to their politics."

"Trust me. I wanted to, but I had nowhere else to go. It just… wasn't the best decision at the time." That wasn't all the way truthful. Having nowhere else to go wouldn't have mattered. She would have slept on the streets if it had meant getting away from the Order. It's why she'd willingly requested and taken the longest missions the furthest from Coruscant once she was knighted.

"So, you're admitting to who you really are now?" Diyannah asked, and Ahsoka shrugged in response. Then the teen added, "You should have come home. Togruta protect their own. The planet would have welcomed you back. If our Senator and other non-imperial planetary officials knew you were here now, they wouldn't tell the Imps. This would have been the last place they expected you to come back to even if they'd known you weren't dead like all the other Jedi."

Ahsoka always knew that. It was why Shili could be running a secret resistance out of a refugee operation. There was no such thing as an orphan on Shili. Not really. When parents died, the village cared for the child, made sure they had a place to call home. So it wouldn't have been out of the norm that when entire communities were ravished, the bigger, industrialized cities came together to provide refuge.

"I couldn't," Ahsoka replied and left it at that. "But if you knew all that, if other people know it, why did you decide to say something?"

"Other people don't know it," assured Diyannah. "Not if they didn't follow the war like I did. I mean, it was impossible to miss the propaganda in media, so people knew who a lot of the Jedi were. Especially you. You were already associated with the most famous Jedi in war, and you shot up in fame and infamy after your trial, and you started heading missions as a general. But it's been almost three years, and the Empire has censored all mentions of the Jedi on the holonet. People are starting to forget."

Knowing that should have stirred something sentimental in Ahsoka, but instead, she found herself not caring. Maybe the Jedi were something better left in the past, dead with the Republic. And in a few years, the Sith along with them if Ahsoka had anything to do with it.

"That still doesn't explain why you outed me."

"I didn't out you. I just let you know I knew who you were. And now I'm telling you that whatever reason you're here, we want no part of it," Diyannah declared.

Ahsoka might have been amused by the girl's declaration if she didn't recognize where her refusal stemmed from. It reminded her of herself not too long ago—hell, of herself right now. Burned by people she should have been able to trust one too many times and given too many empty promises and platitudes. Even on the front lines of a war, Ahsoka hadn't been this jaded. Not at first anyway. That didn't happen until later.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Ahsoka asked softly.

Diyannah confirmed Ahsoka's suspicions when she admitted, "I don't know, but any time a Jedi shows up out of nowhere, history shows it's never been a good thing. Your Order and your Republic are the reason Shili's in the mess that it is combating these slavers."

The girl wasn't wrong. Jedi showing up never bode well, but historically that was because a situation was already at a precarious tipping point, which made it look like them showing up was an omen. But Ahsoka had no desire to defend the Order. She should, instead, have been concerned that Diyannah managed to figure all this out. But the girl was smart, fearless, passionate, and painfully honest. Ahsoka liked her.

"What if I told you I renounced the Jedi?" Ahsoka asked as she sat down on her bed. This was a huge risk, but Ahsoka got the feeling that she needed Diyannah. "What if I told you I'm raising a rebellion to stop the Empire?"

"I'd tell you we want no part of it. You wouldn't be the first one to come to Shili making empty promises."

"That's true. But you certainly can't fight the Empire alone," Ahsoka said. "And you can't fight them the way you've been doing."

"What's wrong with what we've been doing?"

Ahsoka gave the girl a wry look. "Diyannah, you've been arrested twice since I've been here in the last two weeks. And you've got an impressive record before that. You can't fight for your people if you're constantly in and out of jail."

"It's been working so far."

"Until it doesn't. You're asking for the Empire to pay attention to you. And you're woefully unprepared for it if they do." There was no guarantee it would be Vader that the emperor sent either. Palpatine had many enforcers, and Ahsoka wouldn't get a heads up from them of an attack. Or a series of lucky accidents to help them escape. "But I can help you become prepared."

Diyannah didn't respond to that as she sat with arms crossed, lekku twitching in contemplation. Finally, she asked, "If you're not a Jedi, then what is it that you fight for?"

"Because it's the right thing to do."

Diyannah huffed. "That's a load of fodder, and you know it. It might be right, but right for who? So tell me. What is it that you fight for? Or are you still a Jedi."

Ahsoka didn't break eye contact with the girl, but her thoughts went to earlier that morning on a holo call with Luke and Leia. Coordinating good times to make contact with them was difficult since the rotations of the Alderaan and Shili didn't sync to the same time every day. But she and Breha figured it out. Alderaanian tutors were beginning to teach them the Basic alphabet, and Luke and Leia proudly held their datapad up with the help of their handmaiden to show Ahsoka what they'd learned. Leia went first, but when it was Luke's turn, he faltered on a letter. Leia, being Leia, called out the letter her brother was stumped on, causing the Luke to shout, "No, Leia!" while Ahsoka laughed at their antics and wished she were there.

Luke and Leia were something she wanted to keep to herself, to not share with the rest of the galaxy while she didn't have to. But trust begot trust, Ahsoka supposed.

Ahsoka finally replied, "My children."

"Children?" asked Diyannah, narrowing her eyes some. "Jedi don't have children."

"I told you I wasn't a Jedi," Ahsoka said with a small smile. "They're like me. If there were a Jedi Order still, the temple would have been getting ready to request me to give them up. Actually, they would have already taken them."

"They would have let you stay after getting pregnant?"

"Wouldn't be the first time a Jedi found themselves in that predicament," Ahsoka said with a shrug, a little uncomfortable at how easy it had become over the past few years to answer questions without really answering them to avoid lying.

Things like this had been taboo to talk about openly. The Jedi had an image to uphold. But it wasn't unheard of for a Jedi to have a child and the child to end up raised in the Temple. They were usually taken right after birth, though, to avoid forming attachments. The carrying parent usually didn't even get the chance to see or name the child, not if they wanted to remain a Jedi. If there was any case of a Jedi parent leaving the Order with their child because of it, Ahsoka had never heard of it.

Ahsoka continued, "The point is that I'd like for them to be able to grow up without having to hide their powers because they'd be hunted otherwise. Or to be compelled to become part of an organization without really understanding what that choice means."

Diyannah crossed her arms, eyes still narrowed at Ahsoka as she leaned back in her chair. Finally, the girl said, "Huh? Maybe you really aren't a Jedi."

For a second, Ahsoka sensed that the girl had something else to say to that, but she shook her head and said instead, "I'll see if I can get you to our next meeting. Then we'll hear what you have to offer our people's rebellion by joining onto yours."

The girl stood to leave, but as she did so, someone hurriedly knocked on the door. Diyannah looked at Ahsoka, who shrugged and gestured towards the door. The younger togruta answered it to find Noni, a purple togruta with white and pale purple lekku, at the door. The normally pale purple stripes on his lekku were a few shades darker, and he was huffing like he'd run all the way there.

"Diya. You gotta get out of here," Noni said, lekku twitching with nerves.

"What's going on?" Ahsoka asked standing up as the Force gave her warning. Urgent. There was time to do something about it, but they had to move soon.

"Inquisitors are here," Noni said.

Ahsoka's first instincts were that they'd somehow figured out she was here, that she hadn't been careful enough in blending in with the other togruta and the Imperials had run her picture through their records. But then Noni added, "They're looking for you Diya. Something about an incident when you were arrested."

Ahsoka frowned and looked at Diyannah. "Wait? Are you Force-sensitive?"

"Yes… No… I'm not really sure," Diyannah finally said.

"Diya. You gotta go. Come on," Noni said hitting the wall to emphasize the need to start moving.

Ahsoka grabbed onto Diya's arm and began to pull the girl out the room. The rebellion and the girl's Force sensitivity was something to talk about later.

"Let go of me. I don't need your help," Diyannah exclaimed in the hallway.

"Running away from Inquisitors is totally different than running from local Imperial law enforcement. And if your record has anything to say about it, you're not even good at that," Ahsoka said, falling easily into the crisis mode that the war had drilled into her. "Now if you want to live, stop arguing and let's go."

"Diya…" Noni said, confusion in his features.

"She's a not-Jedi."

"A not-Jedi? What's that?"

"I'll meet you all at the emergency meeting tonight," Diyannah said.

"What emergency meeting?"

"The one I just called. Spread the word—Discreetly! Once those Inquisitors are gone," Diya added.

"I know," Noni snapped. "I'm not—"

Ahsoka suddenly got that feeling in the Force that told her to move and to move right then. So she grabbed Diya's arm and said, "We gotta go. Now."

Without waiting for the girl to agree, she started to run with the girl down the hall, both rounding the corner just as she heard the heavy footsteps of troopers in the hall they'd just been in.

"Now would be a good time to show me how exactly it is that you sneak out of here at night so you can get yourself arrested," Ahsoka said as they made their way down the hall.

"You're the Jedi."

"And you obviously know a secret way out of here. All my possible escape routes are probably crawling with troopers, and I'd like to get out of here while drawing as little attention as possible. Now lead the way."

"Are all Jedi this demanding?"

"I'm not a Jedi."

"Are all not-Jedi this demanding?" Diyannah corrected as she led them toward the kitchens.

"There's an exit in the kitchen?" Ahsoka asked, not because she doubted the girl, but because she'd done a sweep of the entire building in the name of getting Noni to give her an extensive tour when she'd first signed on.

"Sort of," Diyannah said as she made her way to the large industrial kitchen walk-in freezer and then pushed the large, wheeled, metal shelves away from the wall. She took a magnet out her pocket and latched it onto the bottom of the wall before pulling upward. What Ahsoka though was a wall rose into the ceiling revealing what looked like the entrance to an old loading zone.

"So this is how you've been getting out," Ahsoka said as she scanned the area while Diyannah pulled the shelf back and lowered the door. Something wasn't right about this…

"Yeah. This place used to be some factory or warehouse. And this was some kind of loading dock. If the Imperials got their hands on the most recent blueprints, they'll find this spot isn't on them because technically it's not here," the girl explained. "There's a side door on the other end of this that leads to a secret alley. Because of the strange way the city ended up designing this, it doesn't look like it's attached to our building. We should be safe here until the Imperials move on."

No sooner than the words left the girl's mouth did the lighting of a red lightsaber contradict her statement.

"Well, well," the woman said, her voice muffled by her black helmet. "What is it that we have here?"

* * *

**AN: **I had way too much fun with this. Mostly because I had a great time putting Ahsoka opposite another togruta who noticed she was weird as far as her biological species goes from spending time with a lot of humans and because of her Jedi training. Also, I love the first line of this because Ahsoka just got done renouncing the Jedi in the last line of the last chapter and then the first line of this chapter is someone accusing her of being a Jedi. Ahsoka is essentially going to spend the rest of her life telling people she's renounced the Jedi while people around her, Vader included, insist she is one. Much like in canon, I suppose.

Diya is also my baby. The last OC I create whole plays a pivotal role in the plots of this story. If you read "It'll be like I Never Left" (Which chronologically takes place after this story and after "Force Distortion"), Diya's there. And very predictably, she and Vader pretty much can't stand each other but mutually tolerate each other.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Review please.


	18. Diya

**Chapter Eighteen: Diya**

Vader had informed Ahsoka early on that the Emperor had enlisted a special task force consisting of fallen Jedi and other dark side adepts called Inquisitors. All of them were tasked with two objectives. The first was to find all remaining Jedi that may have escaped the initial purge, and either force them to pledge service to the Empire or be killed. The second was to find as many Force-sensitive beings as possible, especially children, who could be groomed to serve the Empire. Any of whom, she'd forced Vader to acknowledge, could become his eventual replacement if he outlived his usefulness.

He hadn't given her pictures or profiles or been able to tell her exactly how many inquisitors there were. Just that they were out there and that if she ran into one, her best bet was to kill them. Inquisitors wouldn't stop until they hunted their target down, and if she left them alive, they'd only figure out who she was, and word would get back to the emperor that she was alive. And part of their plan depended on the emperor not knowing she was alive or involved with the rebels.

Ahsoka thought the kill, be killed, or worse mentality would bother her when Vader first advised her. But maybe the fact that it didn't was a testament to the fact that she hadn't been a Jedi for a long time now. Maybe since the war because kill or be killed was how most Jedi lasted the war, whether they wanted to admit it or not.

"Now would be a really good time to use your own lightsaber," Diyannah said in a grim tone without taking her eyes off the inquisitor.

"I agree. It would be if I had mine," Ahsoka replied.

"How are you a Jedi and don't have a lightsaber? Isn't that being a Jedi 101?"

"I'm not a Jedi."

"Tell that to her," Diyannah managed to say before she and Ahsoka had to duck out the way of the lightsaber thrown at them.

"Diyannah, get out of here," Ahsoka said as she ducked and jumped over the lightsaber attacks of the Inquisitor. If it came down to a force-sensitive child who didn't know how not to draw attention to herself and a full-fledged former Jedi, she knew the Inquisitor would choose the latter.

"Ahsoka Tano," the woman said. "I should have known that you would have managed to elude the initial purges. I'll certainly gain the emperor's favor once I report your capture."

"Good luck with that," Ahsoka said, deciding there was no time to waste letting the woman think she'd ever gain the upper hand over her.

It had only taken her observing the woman's initial strikes to notice she was using a very rudimentary and clumsy form of Vader's powerful offensive lightsaber technique. With none of Vader's strength and little of the man's speed that would have served as a cover for the weaknesses in the technique, Ahsoka took advantage of an opening in the woman's defenses. Ahsoka jumped over her blade and chopped the woman right in the neck in a place that wasn't obscured by her helmet and collar.

The woman let out a choked gasp, her empty hand going to her neck and her other hand loosening its grip on her lightsaber, allowing Ahsoka to take the blade out her hand and plunge it into the woman's heart.

The Inquisitor let out another choked gasp, this time, blood spilling from her mouth before she fell backward onto the floor.

Out of danger for the moment, Ahsoka took a moment to inspect the woman's lightsaber and noticed a second switch which Ahsoka pressed to reveal the second blade of the lightsaber. What was it with dark siders and their dual-bladed weapons?

She was distracted from her inspection by the Force and a loud cry.

"Diyannah," Ahsoka shouted, running toward the door that opened up to the secret alley.

She paused before rounding the corner, not wanting to be seen, but the girl's shouts told Ahsoka all she needed to know. Ahsoka peered her head around the corner to see Diyannah being cuffed and placed into an Imperial transport despite her struggling. If Ahsoka helped her now, she'd not only expose herself but also have all Imperial planetary forces after them. Right now, unless Diyannah told them something, she had the element of surprise on her. The best thing to do for now would be to let the Imperials take her and then track her down later.

Ahsoka went back into the old loading area and began to check the body of the Inquisitor, briefly regretting killing her and not being able to get any information from her. But Ahsoka imagined if she had left the woman alive, it would have immediately come back to haunt her. She found both a handheld datapad and a comm unit. With a little luck, she should be able to get into both and find out where they might have taken Diyannah. Hopefully, not off-planet.

The secret door began to lift behind her, and Ahsoka reluctantly lit the red saber. It might not be her color, but it was going to have to do.

"Diya," she heard Noni shout, causing her to turn off the lightsaber. "Diya. They're gone. Left in a hurry. I don't know why but—"

"They left because they got Diyannah," Ahsoka informed with a sigh.

"Diya's gone," Noni exclaimed to which Ahsoka nodded. Then he snapped, "What kind of Jedi are you to let this happen? We didn't have this issue before you got here."

Ahsoka didn't even bother disputing the Jedi thing as she said, "None of this is my fault. If anything, it's your friend's fault. She's cocky, reckless, and always drawing too much attention to herself. They would have come after her regardless of whether or not I'd come here. But you're lucky I am here because I'm going to help you get her back. And to do that, I need to know what's going on and what I'm getting into when I go to rescue her."

"We don't talk about that kind of stuff here," Noni said as he lowered the door back down and put the shelf back in place. "We have to set up a meeting and a time an-an-and," Noni stuttered here as he followed her back through the kitchen, "you're not the one in charge around here."

"Then take me to the person in charge. There's not a lot of time before they take her off-planet to who knows where, and wherever it is, I won't have the resources to stage a rescue," Ahsoka declared. "Besides, the Empire isn't going to let this place still operate after you were found harboring someone that was old enough to maybe have received Jedi training. They'll be knocking on your doors to shut you down tomorrow. If you've got any incriminating evidence, you better move it by tonight."

"Diya was the one in charge," said Noni, all but running to catch up to us

Ahsoka stopped walking at that, causing Noni to bump into her.

"Diyannah? She's the leader of Shili's resistance?" Ahsoka asked as she looked back at him.

"Why else do you think she's always getting into so much trouble? She rather be the one labeled as a delinquent than getting the rest of us in trouble."

Somehow, Ahsoka wasn't surprised by that. She'd been surrounded by people her entire life who'd been at the forefront of Galactic conflicts as children and teens. Padmé was a queen and led the fight to take back her planet at fourteen. Anakin had flown into space battle in the same fight at nine, and then was later a General who quickly rose to both fame and infamy in the Clone Wars at twenty. She'd heard that Obi-wan had been engaged in some exciting adventures as a teen. And Ahsoka herself had been a commander in the war at fourteen and a general at seventeen. It wasn't a stretch to believe that an almost sixteen-year-old was leading a resistance, even if Ahsoka thought she was reckless.

"And she can get out of stuff easier than the rest of us can because of her… I mean, she's not a Jedi. But she has powers."

"The Force," Ahsoka supplied. "She's Force-sensitive."

"Something happened during the last mission. We've been tracking a group of slave smugglers for weeks now. They were going to smuggle their cargo through a shipping yard in the city that they partner with. They knew we were there, though, and to escape, Diya shoved them out the way without touching them. They had to have told local Imperial enforcement," Noni explained. "That's the only thing different that happened from usual."

Ahsoka sighed as she said, "Frankly, it's a wonder she hasn't been apprehended before all this. The Empire could find a lot of uses for someone with the kind of Force talent she has. That means I have even less time to rescue her than I thought."

"What do you mean less time? Amala, what are they going to do to Diya?"

She didn't bother correcting him on the alias yet either as she said, "You really don't want to know." Then she held up the handheld datapad and comm in her hand. "Got any way to slice into these things?"

"What kind of operation do you think Diya runs here?" Noni asked, sounding insulted. "Of course, we do."

He led them to his room and pulled a laptop computer out from under his bed.

"It's Diya's. She's usually the one to intercept communications and stuff like this, but I've watched her hack into stuff like this enough times to do it," Noni said while gesturing for Ahsoka to hand over the datapad and the comm unit as he pulled out a couple of link cables

Ahsoka did so, deciding to let Noni do the hacking even though she could have done it herself with access to a computer. Besides, Noni knew the program his friend ran for this kind of stuff. Ahsoka could probably figure it out with a little time, but time was something they lacked right now, and even then, it took Noni the better part of an hour to get to the information they needed.

"Here's the mission report," Noni said as Ahsoka sat beside him on the floor.

She took the computer from him and briefly scanned the report before scoffing and saying, "You've got to be kidding me."

"What?"

"They think she's me," Ahsoka said with a laugh.

"Who are you?"

"Ahsoka Tano."

"Ahsoka… Wow. Diya idolizes you."

"Does that word mean something else in togruti? Because Diyannah far from idolizes me," Ahsoka replied as she continued through the mission report, searching for the coordinates for where the Inquisitor was supposed to take Diya.

"Of course, she wasn't going to tell you that. She hasn't run a secret resistance being stupid. And it was you they were after?"

"No. They were after Diya, but apparently, they think she looks enough like me that they mistook her identity with the old pic of me they've got on file. I wonder if it ever occurred to them that I got older."

"Well, the Empire generally doesn't care much to find out about non-human biology. They probably thought you were done growing up if they used human biology as the benchmark," Noni pointed out.

That information about the Empire was probably useful for later, but not right then. So Ahsoka filed it away for later as she finally found the coordinates for where Diya was taken. Noni caught a look at the coordinates from beside her and made a clicking sound.

"They took her there!"

"You know this place?" Ahsoka asked.

"Everyone knows it. It's one of the Imperial detention centers for slave shipments. They work in conjunction with off-planet slavers. The slavers get part of the shipment as payment along with the Empire turning a blind eye to them," Noni explained. "We try to intervene with the slavers as much as we can, but with the backing of the Empire, we're not always successful. Actually, we're rarely successful. Taking down that place has been one of Diya's goals for a long time."

Ahsoka made a point to look into that when she had time. If the Empire was running an underground, not so secret slave trade on Shili, they were definitely running one elsewhere. Probably because they needed the free labor to build their increasingly massive navy.

"It's about two hours out from here by speeder. But I can get there faster in my ship. Still, I've got to get going," Ahsoka declared as she got to her feet.

"By yourself?" Noni asked.

"It's better if I do this alone. Taking you or any of your resistance will slow me down. Besides, you all need to get ready to scatter. Destroy or hide any incriminating evidence if you have it, tell your allies to go ghost if you have them, and then scatter to go to a secure rendezvous point later. Preferably another city far from here," Ahsoka explained. Then, given the look on Noni's face, she added, "You don't have to take my advice, but it's the only way to salvage this. Diya wanted attention, and she got it. Shili may protect their own, but if it comes down to throwing you all to the akul or the whole planet coming under strict Imperial lockdown, I don't think you want to gamble what your planet will choose."

Ahsoka took the datapad, hoping that she might get more updates through it and directed Noni to destroy the comm. There was no need to stop by her room. Carrying on her everything she needed to go on the run with her wherever she went was a habit she carried over from being a Jedi.

"Wait!"

"Noni. There's no time to argue. Either—"

"I know. I'm going to do it. I just wanted to give you this," Noni said as he handed her a comm. "You can use this to get in touch with us. Don't worry. Diya's good with this kind of stuff. It's secure. We haven't been interfered with yet."

"Thanks," Ahsoka said as she pocketed the item in her cargo pants. "Now hurry up. You don't have a lot of time. A rotation at best."

That said, Ahsoka went to the docking bay where she'd left her ship. It didn't look like the Empire had come by the place or connected it to the resistance she'd been spying for the last few weeks, but she could never be too careful.

"Artoo," Ahsoka called out as she boarded the ship. The little droid immediately came out of whatever place he'd been hiding in and followed her to the cockpit. "Make sure there are no tracking devices on this thing."

Artoo gave an affirmative beep while Ahsoka readied the ship for takeoff. Once he'd confirmed they were clear, Ahsoka took off into the Shili skies toward the coordinates she'd swiped. It would be a short trip. About thirty minutes compared to the time it would have taken in a speeder. As she did so, she rechecked the mission brief, finding that it had been updated. Diya was now scheduled for immediate interrogation, which somehow both made Ahsoka's mission much more urgent, but less urgent at the same time. At least they weren't taking her off-planet. But at the same time, Force-sensitive or not, Ahsoka wasn't sure if the girl would be able to resist the interrogation techniques of the Empire. And Ahsoka had told the girl a little more than she probably should have.

Ahsoka landed in a secluded patch of tall grass with think foliage and trees surrounding it, hopefully outside the scanning range of the facility. She guessed since she wasn't hailed or shot at, it likely was. Then she made the rest of the hike through colorful foliage to get to the detention center, climbing a tree to do a quick assessment of the place and look for the best place for entry. By now, they'd probably figured out—hopefully,—that Diyannah wasn't really her, and it would be marked as a false lead. That way she could get in and get out before anyone noticed that she was really here.

Finding her opening, she leapt out the tree and started towards the facility, easily jumping over the fence and managing to slip her way inside without being seen. Clearly, they hadn't ever expected a former Jedi to breach their security. And why would they? Most Jedi trained individuals were long dead or in hiding like she had been, waiting for the initial devastation and aftermath of the purge to settle.

She carefully made her way down the halls, avoiding being seen as she followed her instincts to find where the girl had been taken, catching a lift ride down to solitary confinement. She thoughtlessly disarmed the few guards securing the area with the sabers she'd taken off the inquisitors before going down the hall and calling Diyannah's name.

"Ahsoka!" the girl called back, and Ahsoka followed the girl's voice to a cell at the other end of the hall.

"You okay?" Ahsoka asked as she opened the door.

"Besides being cuffed and locked in a cell for the last couple of hours, just peachy," Diyannah replied. Then she said, "Ahsoka. You've got to get out of here."

"I will," Ahsoka said as she used the lightsaber to cut the cuffs on Diyannah's wrists.

"No. I mean you shouldn't have come to get me. They think I'm you."

"I know. And I've been in and out of worse places," Ahsoka said, gesturing for the girl to follow her.

"Worse than—"

Ahsoka gestured for Diyannah to stop talking as she became aware of a presence on the edge of her senses. She noticed it long before they heard the lift at the other end of the hall going back up and certainly long before a dark chill settled in the air and in the Force. She was aware of it just like in what felt like another life she could tell when he was near because she was always acutely aware of his presence.

"You're kriffing kidding me," Ahsoka muttered to herself.

"That's what I was trying to tell you. Darth Vader's coming for you."

So much for getting in and out, Ahsoka thought to herself as she said to Diyannah, "Look for a vent or something. Usually, huge facilities like this need huge exhaust vents because of all the energy they produce. You should be small enough to fit inside.

"But what about you?"

"I can handle Vader," Ahsoka said as they found said vent above them, and she used the Force to pull it open.

"Handle _Vader_," Diyannah said as Ahsoka boosted her into the vent. "Do you know who Vader is? Have you heard the things he's rumored to have done?"

"Yes."

"Ahsoka—"

"Diyannah," Ahsoka said, looking back up at the girl imploringly. "Trust me. I'll be fine."

Diyannah looked at her searchingly for a few moments before she nodded and said, "Diya. You can call me Diya."

"I'm truly grateful for the sentiment," Ahsoka said as she sensed Vader's presence coming closer. "But if you want me to be okay, I really need you to get out of here."

"I'm going," Diya said as she pulled the vent closed and disappeared.

Cunning as she was, Ahsoka had no doubt the girl would be able to escape and find her way out the prison with no one noticing. The question was, would she choose not to attract any attention along the way? Ahsoka hoped it wasn't too much to ask that the girl didn't.

She then turned back to the lift, which had opened to reveal not just Vader but also the warden and five local stormtroopers.

"Hey! You there," the warden shouted before directing the troopers to detain her.

Ahsoka deflected the blaster bolts back at the troopers, felling them with little effort. The warden had just begun to lift his comm to his mouth to alert the facility, and Ahsoka started to reach out to pull it from him with the Force when, suddenly, the man's eyes rolled back to his head, and he collapsed onto the ground.

Vader inspected the scene, and then finally, his eyes fell on her.

"That color suits you," he said, mask tilting toward the red lightsaber in her hand.

Ahsoka couldn't help rolling her eyes, and before she could stop herself said, "Oh, shut up."

* * *

**AN: **I think teenagers are awesome. Sure they're a little obnoxious and think they know everything, but I always find sitting around and talking with them to be very insightful and entertaining, albeit infuriating. Ahsoka is probably going through the whole gambit of that with Diya in this chapter and the next. And Vader probably won't make it easier.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Review please.


	19. Recruits

**Chapter Nineteen: Recruit**

"Before you say something condescending about it," Ahsoka said, knowing exactly what Vader was thinking about finding her here, "I wasn't captured. It was a girl that's probably some distant cousin to me and looks like I did a few years ago was. I'm rescuing her."

Ahsoka extinguished her stolen blade, stepped over the stormtroopers, and stopped in front of the warden's unconscious form, and said, "Look at you. Practicing restraint."

"Not restraint so much as if this situation gets back to the Empire, he will not suspect that a Jedi was here at all or that I helped them escape," Vader corrected.

"How kind of you?" Ahsoka said and then asked, "What are you doing here anyway? You're supposed to be on the other side of the galaxy."

"Well, when the name of such a renowned Jedi such as yourself comes across my desk, I make time to personally intervene," Vader replied, giving Ahsoka that weird cognitive dissonance about him where he sounded like the informal young man that had trained her and this much more jaded formal man that was the Emperor's enforcer. He continued, "I suspected this was a case of mistaken identity. But you surprise me. Taking on an apprentice? I don't remember that being part of our agreement."

They actually hadn't gotten as far as talking about her ever taking on a Jedi apprentice because they never agreed about what to do with the Jedi in the first place. She'd insisted that there might be surviving Jedi that would be willing to join her rebellion. Vader reminded her that his clemency toward the Jedi only extended as far as she was concerned. He had every intention of hunting those that remained down. Ahsoka had argued that the remaining Jedi were her concern, and her rebellion would provide them sanctuary. Neither had been willing to budge on the point and decided to table the matter to talk about more important issues.

"She's not my apprentice," Ahsoka replied shortly. "I just found out she was Force-sensitive today."

More bitterness than she intended must have slipped into her tone because Vader's head tilted sideways, and curiosity slipped past his shields to her. She sighed. He was going to find out about it eventually…

"Besides," she continued, "if there's going to be another generation of Jedi, I won't be the one teaching it. I've renounced the Jedi."

"Renounced?"

"Yes." Before he could ask her anymore on the matter, she added, "But that doesn't matter. I need to get out of here before anyone realizes I really am here."

She glanced at Vader, blocking her way back to the lift, and tilted her head in askance as she said, "I trust you'll smooth all this over just in case it gets back to the Emperor."

"Like always, left to clean up your messes," said Vader as he stepped to the side and out of her way.

Ahsoka decided not to even bother pointing out that he held part of the responsibility for helping bring and keep Palpatine in power, forcing them to work together to take him down, which meant she was effectively cleaning up his mess. This was not the time to instigate Vader's ire towards her, though.

Just as she was about to press the lift button, alarms started to blare in the facility. The unconscious warden's comm flared to life as a message came through, saying that the prison had been breech and that the captive detained there had been released.

"It was just too much to ask her not to attract any attention and just to leave without causing any trouble," Ahsoka said, jamming the lift button over and over impatiently.

When it finally arrived, Ahsoka couldn't get in quick enough and jammed the button to take her to the ground floor. Vader joined her, and as paranoid as she knew him to be, she was sure he'd already come up with a reason for being with her in case anyone recalled seeing them together. As it was, Ahsoka decided when they arrived at the ground floor, no one would see them amongst the utter chaos that had broken out into a full-on prison riot.

"I've gotta find Diya," Ahsoka said as both she and Vader took temporary cover in the lift to avoid the blaster fire coming from both directions.

"Do it quickly," Vader advised as he left the lift, lighting his lightsaber and choosing a direction to deflect blaster fire from with his lightsaber while the rest seemed to bounce harmlessly off his back as though hitting some kind of shield. No doubt, he was going to quell the insurrection, and in the time it took him to do so, Ahsoka needed to be off-planet with Diya.

Ahsoka left the lift and went in the opposite direction as Vader, deflecting blaster fire from both stormtroopers and togruta. Wherever Diya was, Ahsoka knew she was in the thick of the fight, so the more chaotic events got, the closer Ahsoka knew she was getting to Diya.

She found the girl in the mess hall, managing to have gotten high in the railings where the prison guards usually stood. A blaster was in her hand as she shot at Imperials and directed her fellow togruta, taking advantage of the fact that the Imperials knew nothing of the native tongue.

"Diya," Ahsoka shouted, but the girl either didn't hear her or outright ignored her.

She started to call the girl's name again, but the girl suddenly flew from the railings at the same time Ahsoka felt Vader enter the room.

Vader threw her to the ground, and Ahsoka took the paused to use the Force to pull Diya towards her. His mask turned very slightly in her and Diya's direction before he decided to ignore them to further put down the insurrection.

"No!" Diya said. "We can win this."

"We can't win against Darth Vader. No one can like this," Ahsoka said, flipping a table over to give them cover in the firefight.

"You're asking me to leave. You're no different than the so-called Republic, Separatists, and Empire that you claim to be so different from," Diya snapped.

"Stop for a minute and think, Diya," Ahsoka said. "This has nothing to do with politics. You're right. We have nothing to gain by leaving here. But you have everything to lose."

"How?"

"Can I explain it on the ship?"

"You explain it now."

Force, Ahsoka was going to have to apologize to Vader one day if she'd caused him this kind of headache when they were a teacher-student pair. Then again, she figured raising his children after he turned to the dark side and betrayed everyone made them even.

"If you manage to win today, you'll guarantee a loss in the future. Because all that's going to do is bring more of the Empire to Shili, and they won't be able to fight them off. They'll enslave the whole planet," Ahsoka explained over the increasing fire. "I'm not asking you to just leave. I'm asking you to live to fight another day because your people are going to need you. Lose the battle now to win the war later."

Diya groaned. "Fine. But I've got so many questions for you once we're out of here."

"Noted," Ahsoka said as she lit her stolen lightsaber and began to fight her way back through the chaos and toward an exit.

Both she and Diya ducked back into the building upon finding their exit as a rain of blaster fire spilled onto them.

"I'll cover us," Ahsoka said before opening the door again and deflecting the blaster fire that poured onto them. She ignored the bodies of those who'd tried to escape littering the exit and headed for a transport in the yard.

The transport was already occupied when they got there, with four togruta trying to start it up.

"She's a Jedi, and she's got a ship," Diya said before they could protest their presence as they climbed in.

For once, Ahsoka didn't protest the Jedi thing, while really hoping none of them had any kind of trackers. But if they did, hopefully, the Force would have alerted her to something like that.

"Into the woods," Ahsoka said once they'd sped out past the gates.

Not made for the type of terrain it was taking them through, the bulky transport knocked into branches and trees, tossing its passengers about as they made their escape. A particular rocky bump told Ahsoka that trees weren't the only thing they had to worry about.

"We're being shot at," Diya yelled.

"Keep driving," Ahsoka said as she took out her comm. "Artoo, have the ship ready to take off now."

She got an affirmative beep back as the transport rocked with more blaster fire.

"What's that smell?"

"Don't worry about it. We're almost there," Ahsoka said to the girl.

"Ahsoka, something's on fire."

"I know."

"Are all Jedi this insane?"

"No. That's why I'm not a Jedi," Ahsoka reminded the girl as they came into the clearing where she'd left her ship.

"Go, go, go," Ahsoka urged, opening the door and letting everyone out before climbing out behind them to face the troopers that followed them on transport bikes with her stolen lightsaber.

"Ahsoka, we need to get going," Diya said from halfway up the ramp.

"This won't take long," Ahsoka assured, lighting the red blade and flipping into the air. As she descended, she managed to take out a trooper on either transport bike before landing on her feet and whirling around to take out the other two.

"Show off," Diya said as Ahsoka ran past her and into the cockpit.

Ahsoka waited with bated breath as she guided them out of the atmosphere because during the war, getting to her ship was usually only half the battle. But this time, it seemed that Vader hadn't brought an entire fleet. With little trouble, Ahsoka made the first of what would be many jumps into hyperspace to make sure the Empire wasn't on their trail.

She turned back to see Diya and the other prisoners that had tagged along were no longer in the cockpit. Assuming they'd gone to rest, Ahsoka decided instead to contact Bail and let him know she was on her way back soon with added passengers.

Diya came into the cockpit as Bail was about to question her further, causing Ahsoka to cut the conversation short.

"Is everyone okay?" Ahsoka asked as the girl sat in the co-pilots chair.

"They're fine. Tired. But fine," Diya said shortly.

"And what about you, besides very pissed off at me?"

"I actually haven't decided on that."

"What are you waiting on, then?"

"To talk to you," Diya said, crossing her arms, her lekku twitching with her conflict.

"So talk."

"Darth Vader," the girl said. "You two know each other, don't you? And can you please just answer me truthfully without all the vague back and forth?"

"You know it can't be that easy," Ahsoka replied with a sigh. Somehow, in one day, this girl had managed to figure out that she was a Jedi and now suspected she was working with Darth Vader.

Diya sighed. "When he pulled me from the railing and threw me down, you pulled me to you. When he saw you, he let us go, even though we were right there. The only reason he would have done that is that you know him somehow, and he wanted you to get out. You also said that no one can beat Vader like he was back there. Yet somehow, you managed to get away from him without any injury after you sent me away?"

It was scary how shrewd this girl was. Ahsoka wasn't particularly even sure Diya noticed any more than anyone else. She just didn't dismiss things that looked like coincidences like most people did. Anyone else would have seen all that and thought Vader simply had something more pressing to deal with or that he thought she was just another detainee.

"I know him," Ahsoka decided to admit.

"You're working together destroy the Empire."

"No," Ahsoka said truthfully. "We're going to take it from the Emperor."

"And then what?"

That was certainly the million credit question. Ahsoka had never really gotten past working with Vader to kill the Emperor. Theoretically, the idea was that Vader would become Emperor. But really? Ahsoka knew Vader well enough to know that he was ill-suited to the politics and diplomacy required for Galactic rulership. She was hoping that Bail and some of his allies-if she could get them to see past her bringing another emperor to power-would help her to temper Vader's bullheaded determination for a decade or so. In the meantime, they could groom one of the twins to take the rulership seat. There were a lot of variables to figure out with that plan, but Ahsoka figured she'd gain more insight the closer they got to bringing Palpatine's demise to fruition.

Finally, Ahsoka replied, "I'm not sure."

"Ahsoka, if you'd said anything else, I would have told you to drop us off somewhere and wanted nothing to do with your rebellion. As it is, I've decided I want in," Diya declared.

"Hold on," Ahsoka said, raising her hand. "Less than a rotation ago, you wanted nothing to do with my rebellion. Now you want to help?"

"I thought about what you said. Back in the prison. Back at the refuge center," Diya added. "You're right. I don't really know what I'm doing. I never did. I just knew someone needed to do something, so I did what I could. But obviously, that's not enough. So I want in. And I can get what allies I do have in too."

"No."

"What? Why? You came to Shili looking for the leader of our planet's resistance. Now you have her, and you don't want my help."

"You're sixteen."

"You were fourteen fighting in the Clones Wars."

"Exactly. I shouldn't have been."

Ahsoka couldn't remember if she'd been so bright-eyed and eager to fight in the Clone Wars when she first became a padawan. Probably, though, the reality of war quickly tempered her enthusiasm. And now, looking back on it, she wondered what the Senate and the Jedi Order had been thinking to allow Jedi her age to become child soldiers.

"That's one mistake this rebellion isn't making. Children don't get to fight in a war."

"Well, too late for that. I'm already fighting it. I've been fighting it since our village was ravished by slavers when I was nine," Diya argued. "And now I'm probably a fugitive from my own planet. You don't get to tell me I don't get to fight in this."

"I do when you almost got yourself and a lot of innocent people killed because you used powers that you can barely comprehend how to use, and I had to save you," Ahsoka pointed out wryly.

"Then teach me. Teach me how to fight so we can win. Tell me what to do."

"I'm not a Jedi. I won't teach you how to be one if that's what you're asking."

"I'm not asking you to teach me to be a Jedi. I'm asking you to teach me to use my Force powers. I don't have to be a Jedi to learn how to use the Force."

Ahsoka supposed that was true. She was already teaching Luke and Leia how to control their powers without being aligned to the Jedi or the Sith.

"Why didn't you go to the temple?" Ahsoka asked. "You're old enough for the Jedi to have been able to find you. Why didn't our village tell the Jedi about you like they did me?"

"I didn't want to leave my mother," Diya said simply. "I told you. Our village talked about you. How you left to become a Jedi. But I also knew you didn't come back. So when I figured out I had power like a Jedi when I was three or four, I hid it. I wanted to learn to use my power, but I loved my home more. Still ended up losing it after all."

"Well, you would have been dead if the Jedi had found you. So it was for the best. I guess," Ahsoka added.

"But now you can teach me," Diya said with a smirk.

Ahsoka smiled a little back before saying, "Fine. I'll teach you. But if you want to help in the rebellion, we're going to find you something that doesn't have to do with you fighting battles."

"Maybe my darknet server can help."

Ahsoka frowned. "Your what?"

"My darknet server. It's the holonet, but it would be like… I don't know. A secret underground tunnel that only really good drivers could find?" Diya said, scrunching up her nose a little. "Does that make sense?"

"Perfect. Would it be possible to set up an encrypted communications system that way?" Ahsoka asked.

"Depends on how big the system needs to be. I had one for us. To contact the other cells on Shili. And I was in contact with a cell on Kashyyyk. The Wookiees have it even worse with the slave trade over there. There's even rumor that the Empire is going to declare them non-sentient," Diya said gravely.

The government-sponsored genocides and slave trades of the Empire was something they would have to do something about before they defeated Palpatine, Ahsoka decided. If they waited too long, entire nonhuman civilizations could be driven to extinction by then.

"I'm talking a system for hundreds, maybe thousands of worlds if we can get the right people on our side. One of the things I'm trying to establish is a reliable communication and intelligence system for the rebellion to try to start organizing pockets of resistance to disrupt the Empire. But it's slow going."

That and Ahsoka would like to continue to be a significant presence in her children's lives. If there was a way that she could securely get in contact with cells without always having to leave the planet and scope out operations, she'd like to do it.

"That's huge," Diya said, making a clicking noise to punctuate it. "But I can probably build a network for that within the year and start getting what contacts you have connected in the meantime." She sat up then, looking at Ahsoka with wide, imploring eyes. "So…"

Ahsoka rolled her eyes then, crossing her arms as she said, "Fine. Welcome to the rebellion, Diya."

The girl made a clicking whooping noise and spun around in her chair in excitement before getting up to run back to the communal area.

"Why do I get the feeling that she's going to be a handful?" Ahsoka asked herself before her gaze fell on the inquisitor lightsaber that she'd haphazardly discarded earlier.

She used the Force to summon the weapon to her, opening herself up to the Force so that she felt the pain radiating from the crystals inside. Then she took the two red crystals out, levitated them in her hand, closed her eyes, and reached out to them in the Force. They didn't call to her specifically, not the way the crystals in her old lightsabers did, but they did cry from the pain and hate that had been used to force them to bleed for a dark side user. In response, Ahsoka sent an apologetic impression towards them. For being Forced from their rightful owner. For being Forced to bleed. For ignoring their cries earlier when she'd taken the blade and used it. What she felt in return resonated with her. The feeling of having something taken away, of abandonment, of feeling lost with no purpose even after finding one. She sent an inquiry back in return. An offer of purpose, something to heal the abandonment.

It took Ahsoka a while to get a response back, a tentative question of her alliance. Light or dark?

"Neither," Ahsoka responded aloud. "Just… Just the Force."

It must have been a sufficient answer because she felt the pain and hate imbued in the crystal begin to dissipate until, finally, there was none. When Ahsoka opened her eyes, she was left with two glowing white crystals.

From a nearby compartment, she took out two empty hilts, both of which she'd made when she suddenly had the inspiration to do so on Alderaan. She'd found the old thick leather cloak and the soft senatorial gown with surprisingly durable material that she'd used in those first few weeks in space after the Empire rose to keep herself and her newborn twins warm and incorporated pieces of it into either hilt.

Using the Force to open the compartments on both, she inserted a white crystal into each before taking her new weapons into her hands and lighting the white blades.

"Welcome to the rebellion," she said to them, much like she said to Diya earlier but with a lot less apprehension and hesitation.

In her hands, the crystals vibrated in contentment with their new home and owner.

* * *

**AN: **Technically, these aren't the same crystals that Ahsoka gets in the canon to make her white lightsabers. But this also isn't really the same Ahsoka, not based on her experiences anyway. And I wanted her lightsabers to represent that. Taking on lost things that maybe weren't supposed to be hers, but find themselves in her care anyway. The crystals are like that. They don't "call" to her, but they still resonate with her.

And of course, Diya's eventually going to convince Ahsoka to put her in the field. She's not just relegated to desk work.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, please! I appreciate it.


	20. Ambush

**AN: **This is a day late but I was exhausted and didn't have the energy to run this through a grammar check and look it over. Now that I'm rested and on my spring break (extended because of the coronavirus in my state), I've got the energy and time to put it up. Thank you for your patience.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty: Ambush**

If Vader were not secretly raising a rebellion and slowing turning the Emperor's own forces against him, he'd sooner be on some planet enforcing the rule of the Empire rather than sitting in this meeting with the Joint Chiefs of the Empire. But as it was, if he was going to earn the loyalties of the Imperial fleet, he could not afford to be too aloof when it came to matters concerning the highest-ranking officials of the Empire. Technically, he had no official rank in the Imperial structure. Thus, the Joint Chiefs had no reason to brief him about Imperial matters, something that bothered Vader little since he took all his orders from the Emperor himself. But even without an official rank, he was the de-facto second in command of the Empire. So they couldn't turn him away if he decided he wanted to sit in on a meeting. Besides, it would be out of character if he weren't sitting in this meeting today considering the subject at hand.

The Fulcrum.

The name had first come up a year ago. Little more than what appeared to be a very skilled, common smuggler that got a thrill out of infiltrating high-security Imperial facilities. Then, just a week ago, a distress beacon came in from a remote Imperial outpost overseeing some sector of little importance to the Empire. By the time anyone got there to aid them, it was too late. The entire outpost had been decimated for reasons that had yet to be figured out by the Empire.

And in that one incident, just the name began to inspire so much unease among the Imperial ranks that soldiers hardly said the name above a whisper. With good reason, if the reports Vader had scanned before attending this meeting about the state the outpost in the aftermath were true. Though what he'd heard from the common storm troopers told him that what had spread among the general populace was greatly exaggerated and full of unsubstantiated rumors that only rivaled what he knew people said about himself.

"I think," Tarkin's holo interrupted the pointless squabbling that had erupted around the table, "we all agree that the Fulcrum is a problem. The real question is how much of a problem is he, and exactly what measures we should take to do something about him."

"If he's a single actor at all. Our intelligence operatives can't even determine that."

"It would help if anyone who saw him survived to tell the tale."

Vader tuned out the conversation out again, both amused and appalled at the apparent xenophobia and sexism of the Empire. The assumption was certainly beneficial to the person who Vader was mostly certain was the real Fulcrum, though. While Vader and Ahsoka's operations sometimes crossed, and he sent her information to steer her in the right direction on a regular occasion, they mostly didn't talk about what the other was up to. The idea was that if either of them had the unfortunate occasion to be discovered by the Emperor, they would genuinely have no clue about the operations of the other.

Still, if Vader had to take his guess, he'd assume that said outpost had discovered some operation or another that Ahsoka was cultivating in the unimportant sector, and she was forced to deal with the threat accordingly. Finally, tired of the squabbling, Vader decided to cut in.

"While I agree that there certainly may be more than meets the eye about the Fulcrum, especially considering this incident, the Emperor doesn't think it warrants significant Imperial attention and believes the local sector authorities can deal with their one rogue smuggler. In the meantime, we should still keep an eye on the situation and continue to gather whatever intelligence on the matter we can," Vader stated.

Part of starting to cement his power in the Empire meant that though he was the mouthpiece of the Emperor, he also had to convince others that he spoke for himself and was more than just someone's fist. Hence the vague implication that he might disagree with how the Emperor was handling this situation. Because if he didn't suspect Ahsoka had something to do with this, he certainly would have pressed the matter with the Emperor later. He still would, of course. But knowing Sidious, so secure in his power that he was, he would wait until the threat revealed itself for what it was before determining it was no threat at all because his foresight was infallible.

His master would pay for that arrogance one day.

The meeting adjourned shortly after, the holo images of all the Joint Chiefs flickering out. Vader sighed, seeking patience. The long game, he reminded himself. When he was Emperor, he wouldn't have to deal with the pointless squabbling and obvious jockeying for political prominence and power from the Joint Chiefs. Most of them would die anyway. All of them would certainly seek to find a way to seize his power.

A matter to deal with later, Vader decided as he rose from his seat and headed to the bridge, just in time for the ship to drop out of hyperspace, a fair distance from their target planet. But Vader hadn't wanted to alert the planetary system that they were arriving and thereby alert his possible Jedi target.

"Lord Vader," the inquisitor already on the planet said when he disembarked from his shuttle.

"Inquisitor," Vader replied. "What intel have you gathered from the officials and locals about the Jedi hiding in their vicinity?"

"All intel leads me to believe that the Jedi is hiding in their sacred ruins, just on the edge of town. There's two entrance. The main one, above ground and the one from the underground tunnels," the Inquisitor informed as he showed Vader a layout of the ruins.

"You'll take the main entrance. I'll surprise our host from below," Vader determined as he led the way to the ruins.

He parted ways with the Inquisitor as they approached the ruins and headed toward the east tunnel entrance. Once there, he paused, getting the distinct feeling that he was being watched. Without giving away that he knew that to whoever was watching, he reached out into the Force to help him find the spy. Then he reached out with his right hand and grasped them with the Force, pulling them from behind the broken column on the ground.

"Oh stang," the raspy female voice managed through the Force grip he had on her neck.

He threw the togruta girl on the ground and lit his lightsaber.

"Wait!" she said. "I'm not a Jedi."

"Then what is your business here, young one," he said, using a Force choke to lift her off the ground.

"I'm here for… Ahsoka sent me," the girl choked. "She told me if I ever ran into you, you'd know—kriff. My lek blocks the insignia now. Look!"

Vader looked down to where the girl moved the tip of her left lek out the way to show Ahsoka's special insignia, based on the shape of the facial markings on her forehead. A symbol she gave her special agents, a code that relayed to him that she'd appreciate it if he didn't kill those particular rebel agents on the field if he could help it, purposefully or accidentally.

Vader let go of the girl, but didn't disengage his lightsaber.

"I sincerely hope," Vader growled, "that you don't go around blowing your cover to just anyone child. Because if you do, no special insignia will save you."

"Of course not," the teen said in a raspy tone that Vader wasn't sure was her natural voice or the result of his choking her. She got to her feet and dusted herself off with a glare in his direction. "But when a dark, scary guy in a black mask that's become a terrifying ghost story is about to choke you to death, you do what you need to stay alive. And I knew mentioning Ahsoka's name would get you to pause your homicidal tendencies."

The comment gave Vader a plethora of questions to ask, namely how in the galaxy did this girl know he and Ahsoka were working together. Surely Ahsoka had enough discretion not to reveal that fact to all her agents. Or anyone for that matter. The girl answered that question without him having to prompt.

"She also told me to make sure that if I ever found myself having the unfortunate honor of your company to tell you that the only reason I know the two of you are working together is that I figured it out when you let us go back on Shili."

Shili.

No wonder the girl was so familiar. It wasn't that she looked like Ahsoka, though, because he could easily distinguish the jagged perimeter of this girl's white markings on either side of her forehead compared to Ahsoka's smooth edges. No. This was the Force-sensitive girl who started that riot at the detention center on Shili some months ago. For whatever reason, Ahsoka kept around.

"Diya," he stated as he connected the girl to the "Aunt Diya" Luke and Leia had rambled to him about the last time he saw them.

"Only my friends call me that."

Vader scoffed, though it didn't quite come through his voice modulator like that. As if he cared who she allowed to call her that. She was lucky he hadn't killed her.

"What is your business here, child?" Vader asked brusquely as he made his way to the tunnel entrance.

"The same as yours, I'm betting. Jedi hunting," Diya replied as she too made her way to the tunnel. "Didn't imagine I'd meet you here, though."

Even while working with him, she'd try to find a way to undermine him. There were many things that they never agreed on, but what to do about the surviving Jedi was the most significant point of contention between them. So of course, Ahsoka wouldn't make things easy for him and was actively seeking out surviving Jedi to keep them out of his grasp, even after she'd renounced their teachings.

"I advise you to leave while I'm feeling generous enough to allow you the privilege."

"Sorry. But I've got a mission. And I'm not going leave until I accomplish it," Diya declared haughtily as she inspected the blocked tunnel entrance and began to look around for something to use as leverage to disrupt the fallen rubble.

Vader pushed the girl aside with the Force and levitated the rubble out his way. He assumed, knowing that the girl was Force-sensitive, Ahsoka would not be able to resist giving the teen at least some basic training.

He extinguished his lightsaber as the girl followed him into the tunnel, wanting to have as much element of surprise on the Jedi as possible. That didn't seem to bother Diya as she kept walking beside him. Untrained as she was, when he found the Jedi, there was little the girl could do to stop him from capturing or exterminating them. Thus he didn't comment about her following him.

"So since we're temporarily stuck together," Diya said in a serious tone, "perhaps you'd humor my curiosity."

Vader didn't answer her, but Diya was undeterred as she continued, "When I figured out that you and Ahsoka were working together, I have to say I was surprised. I thought I had the Jedi and the Sith pegged. You know, two groups having a huge philosophical disagreement and tearing up the galaxy as a result in the process."

"That," Vader began slowly, "is a vast oversimplification."

Diya nodded in agreement and said, "But an accurate one. Anyway, it got me to thinking… how did a former Jedi knight such as Ahsoka become acquainted enough with you, a Sith Lord, to end up working with you to take down the Emperor instead of dead like most of the other Jedi? Because certainly, you wouldn't have appreciated her renouncement. Once a Jedi, always a Jedi as far as the Empire seems concerned, right?"

Vader hoped the girl had thought carefully before she spoke whatever she was about to say next…

"The only thing that makes sense is that she was acquainted with you before you appeared out of nowhere on the galactic scene and started hunting Jedi."

"Careful, young one," Vader said, deciding now was the time to stop the girl. "Your intuition does you credit, but it could very well be your undoing."

"Wow. Was that a compliment?" the girl asked in dry, feigned flattery. "So I'm right, aren't I?"

Vader now understood why Ahsoka kept the girl close if she was this observant.

"I won't humor accusations whose foundations lie in fantasy."

"It's not based in fantasy. You let us go on Shili. If you had been more discreet about that, I would have never noticed."

He had no doubt that she was related to Ahsoka somehow now. That was the exact tone she would have used.

"I didn't let you go. There were more pressing matters to tend to than chasing after a brat who was in over her head."

"I'm not a brat!'

Vader stopped walking and tilted his helmet as he gave her a pointed look, his argument proven. She huffed and turned up her nose to lessen the effect of the darkening chevrons on her lekku.

"All I'm saying is that for whatever reason, Ahsoka has decided to work with you to take down your Emperor. I'm making sure there's no chance of you ruining that because she's gotten in way over her head in thinking she can control a homicidal maniac like you," Diya said as though she thought he was little better than the scuff on her shoes.

Vader actually laughed at that, having half the mind to ask the girl exactly how she planned to make sure of that. Instead, he said, "I'm sure Ahsoka appreciates your blind loyalty."

"It's not blind. She's good at hiding it, but she's as angry at and disillusioned by all the institutions and people that led to the rise of the Emperor as I am. More in fact, since she dedicated her life to fighting for all those things and in return, they all betrayed her. I want to see what she does with that when we kill the Emperor. So for now, I'm on her side. And if I'm going to be on her side, that means working out why she's so loyal to you."

Vader scoffed. "We have a common goal, and it serves both our interests to work together. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so the saying goes."

Diya huffed. "Yeah. Ahsoka fed me the same bantha shit. And you wanna know how I know it's bantha shit?"

Vader wondered just how fond of Diya Ahsoka was and how much more his former student might hate him if he decided to kill the teen.

"Please," he drawled sarcastically, "enlighten me."

"Because she could do this without you. It would be harder without having the Emperor's right-hand man on her side, but I've seen what she can do. She could take down this Empire without your help."

Diya wasn't making the grand revelation to him that she probably thought she was. Of course, Vader knew Ahsoka could take on the Empire on her own. He was the one who made sure of it. He considered the risk when he decided to train her and give her all the tools she needed to build her rebellion. But it was a risk he had to take because Ahsoka was right. He was the possible loose cannon in this plan. It took massive amounts of restraint and meditation as it was to play his part while being so close to the Emperor. If he were ever compromised, he'd already given Ahsoka everything she needed to wage war and take the Empire from Palpatine without him. Even if he hadn't, she would have figured it all out anyway.

"Which takes me back to my original point. You had to know each other before all this. Because whatever you were to each other, it's the sentiment she has about it that's kept you in her good graces. And her in yours," Diya declared.

Vader was now curious exactly what it was that Diya thought she'd worked out. She was clearly trying to allude to something but was smart enough not to reveal her entire hand.

"You've clearly been watching way too many of those fantastical cartoons and holo-dramas Ahsoka is so fond of."

"Probably," Diya agreed. "But—"

Vader's instincts made him suddenly light his lightsaber.

"Something…" Diya trailed off. "Something doesn't feel right."

More than that. Something was _very_ wrong.

The ground shook with explosions, the tunnel began to collapse, and Vader just managed to put up a Force shield before fire consumed them.

* * *

**AN: **Diya is the first of many in this story who question Vader's and Ahsoka's relationship with each other. I think those are very important perspectives because Vader and Ahsoka aren't totally reliable narrators, least of all when it comes to each other. Other characters' observation is going to add a lot of meaningful insight to everything going on.

Hope you enjoyed. Review please.


	21. Undermined

**Chapter Twenty-One: Undermined**

When the shaking stopped, and Vader was sure that the tunnel was stable enough that no more debris would fall to injure them, he retreated his Force shield.

"What happened?" Diya said, coughing through the debris that came through.

"An ambush," Vader growled in angrily. "This was a trap. There is no Jedi here."

"Can't say I'm surprised. There are definitely a lot of people in the galaxy that would like to kill you."

Vader ignored Diya as he inspected the tunnel to see if there was a was way to free the debris without causing the tunnel to cave in on them. One thing he was learning from his master was how to categorically let non-threats be. His master's obvious ad apparent dismissal of the dissenting voices was part of the reason that the rebellions rising across the galaxy currently got such bad press in the broader galaxy. Not only did he not think of them as a threat, him ignoring them made them less of a threat. He didn't always agree when his master ignored matters, but it helped with his perception among the Imperial leadership.

"How much air do you think we have in here?" Diya asked.

"We will not be here long enough for it to be a concern," he replied as he used the Force to help him safely shift the rocks.

"So, it's okay to make a comm call?"

"We don't need rescuing."

"I know that. But it's time for me to check in with Ahsoka. If I don't, she's going to assume I did something stupid like start another revolt with no concrete plan on how to fight off the Empire again," Diya grumbled.

So Ahsoka did have the forethought to put conditions on this mission she gave to the reckless girl...

Vader didn't answer her, but Diya seemed to take his silence as permission because a short time later, he heard Ahsoka's voice come through the comm.

"_You were supposed to check in an hour ago."_

"I know. But when you're trying to talk Darth Vader out of killing you, things tend to slip your mind."

"_Vader?"_

"Yes. It's been an unfortunate honor spending time in his company. How the hell do you put up with him? Has he always been like this?"

Vader heard Ahsoka sigh and then say, _"Diya, try not to antagonize him. There's only so much I can do to try to keep him from killing you if he decides you're more trouble to him than you're worth."_

"You're defending him. Seriously?"

"_No. But I really do not want to spend the rest of the week arguing with him about why he can't just go around killing my agents, especially kids, because they said the wrong thing."_

"I'm seventeen. I'm not a kid," Diya insisted.

"_Diya. Don't give Vader any leverage by saying that."_

Vader finally found the way to shift the rocks so he could go further into the ruins without collapsing the tunnel and did so, creating a large enough opening for him to get through. And if he could get through it, so could Diya.

"If you want to get out of here safely, I'd advise you keep up," Vader said, turning to the girl and getting a glimpse of a holo of Ahsoka's insignia coming out Diya's comm.

"_Do I even want to know, Diya?"_

"I'll brief you when I'm out," Diya assured.

The comm cut off after that. Vader had already made it through the crevice and into the rest of the tunnel, but hey weren't out of danger yet. And seeming to understand the gravity of the trap they'd walked into, Diya didn't fall back into conversation.

"Be vigilant," Vader warned as he slowly continued into the hall. "And if you have a weapon, I advise you to draw it now. Those explosions were only the beginning of the trap laid for us, and just because I'm resisting the impulse to kill you does not mean I am inclined to extend my protection toward you from other threats."

"I don't need your help," Diya snapped as she took out her blaster and held it with both hands. "Says the girl who started an ill-fated prison riot."

Her Force signature flared some with her indignation at his mocking.

"A slaver like you doesn't get to lecture me about taking a stand to stop the slave trade on my planet!"

Vader rounded on her, all thoughts of trying to practice any restraint vanishing, what little patience he'd been trying to practice gone as the temperature in the tunnel dropped from him dropping the shields that restrained the full magnitude of his power in the Force.

Diya shivered from the cold, trepidation coming off her through the Force at what Vader hoped was the realization that she'd pushed him too far.

"I dare you to say that again, child," he said in a deathly silent, even tone.

She silently stared him with a wide-eyed look that was both cautious and confused before she huffed, narrowed her eyes, looked him straight in his mask and began, "A slaver like you—"

He didn't allow Diya to finish. He grabbed her in a Force choke and slammed her against the wall.

"I'm no slaver," he growled, tightening his grip around her throat.

Diya somehow managed to still take in a strangled breath and then choked, "Most… would… disagree."

"That's because they want anarchy instead of the peace and order I've brought to the galaxy," he insisted.

"If that's what you really think, then you're going to be no better than the Emperor. And I have every intention of sending every slaver straight to hell. Even you, whether Ahsoka likes it or not."

Vader paused a few breathing cycles, trying and failing not to remember a long-forgotten promise made out of naïve sentiments, before the realization that cruelty and greed weren't just exclusive to Tatooine. Lost in his inner conflict, he nearly forgot he still had Diya in his grip until through the red tint of his mask, he saw her lekku were dangerously pale.

He let go of his grip on her. He had intended to scare her, not kill her.

She gasped in choking breaths and fell to the cavern floor.

"Kriffing psycho," she managed, reaching for her fallen blaster.

Vader ignored her as he continued through the tunnel, though he was quietly impressed that she was still brave enough to talk back to him after he'd gotten so close to killing her. She was unrefined and needed to learn when to keep her mouth shut, but he and Ahsoka could use fearless people like her in their fight against Palpatine. Vader wasn't going to encourage the girl though.

She caught up with him eventually, blaster back in her hands. She was wisely keeping her distance but wore an indifferent expression on her face despite the pain and fear he sensed coming from her.

He paused right before they were about to enter a cavern, holding up his hand to halt Diya. No sooner than he sensed something amiss did the room begin to fill with white smoke. He used the Force to disperse the smoke, but the shooting had already begun. He and Diya retreated into the tunnel while he pulled a heavy slab in front of them to give them cover.

"I'm going to kill the entire town," Vader growled.

"I understand the sentiment," Diya managed, her voice now strained. "How many do you think there are?"

"Not enough," Vader said and then turned to her. "If you wish to live, I'd advise you to stay behind me."

"You didn't care about that when you tried to kill me a few minutes ago,"

Vader answer as he stood, pushing the slab out the way and exposing himself to the blaster fire of the insurgents. He immersed himself in the power of the dark side, feeding his hate and anger with every blaster bolt he deflected back on the enemy, every person he choked, whose heart he crushed; taking sadistic pleasure as he sensed the hope that they might have cornered him drain away and be slowly replaced with the horrifying realization that there had been no hope, to begin with. Diya meanwhile proved herself useful by picking off those he didn't get to immediately with her blaster. When she ran out of fuel, she used throwing knives. Vader had to grudgingly admit that for all she had a grating personality, she knew how to keep her cool in a firefight.

Once the cavern was clear, he made his way two by two up a high and wide set of stone stairs. Diya ran to keep up with him while at the same time trying to change the fuel rounds of her blaster. She eventually stopped to do the latter as he continued up the stairs, but she was ready by the time they got to the ground floor and met with more insurgents.

They both ducked behind large statutes as one of the insurgents aimed a long thin canon over his shoulder and fired right where they'd come off the stairs. It exploded behind them, causing the temple ruins to shudder and debris to fall behind them.

"A bazooka? Are you kidding me?" Diya growled.

Vader sorely wished as he jumped from behind the statute and cut the bazooka in half with his lightsaber and began making quick work of the insurgents with Diya coming in behind him and picking off those he didn't get to fast enough. By the time they got to the entrance, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake, the inquisitor was already there, taking cover behind a large stone column avoiding the fire of more insurgents.

"Lord Vader," the inquisitor began, no doubt to inform Vader of what he'd discovered.

"It's fairly obvious what has happened. I have no need for your report," Vader growled, jumping over the column to deal with the threat. He landed amongst the bulk of the insurgents, relinquishing most of the careful control he had over the dark side, keeping just enough so that the dark side's own chaotic will didn't override his own.

Though he had no need for their assistance, he was vaguely aware that his inquisitor and Diya had joined him on the perimeter of the fray. Debris from the ruins began to fly in the air, taking out some of the insurgents and causing a suitable distraction so that he could effortlessly cut down, crush the windpipes of, and mangle the bulk of the insurgents. Diya and the inquisitor got the ones out of his reach. When he stopped sensing blaster bolts come after him, he turned to face the inquisitor and Diya, who were standing a few meters away.

"That was all of them," Vader declared. The fighting force anyway. He would head right back to the town that had no doubt had sheltered the insurgents for this ambush and slaughter ever official in charge.

"Nope," Diya contradicted. "I missed one."

Before Vader could inquire what she meant, Diya, who still had her blaster cocked, turned it on the inquisitor in front of her and shot him three times in point-blank range. Vader outstretched his hand toward her to pulled the blaster away. By the time it had flown into his outstretched hand, Diya had taken out another device. He barely got a warning in the Force before she activated the device, sending an electromagnetic shock through the vicinity that short-circuited his suit and temporarily brought him down to his knees. In the seconds it took for the emergency systems in the suit to bring it back online, the wind around them picked up. By the time Vader got to his feet, a ship was lifting into the air with Diya speeding up the ramp and into the ship.

He reached out with the Force to try to pull the ship back but seeming to predict this, Diya threw a detonator down toward him. It began to explode in midair, a few feet in front of him, forcing Vader to direct his attention to using the Force to contain the explosion and not pulling the ship back.

By the time the detonator had finished expending its energy, Diya's ship was far out the reach of Vader's power, much to his mounting fury. Not at the insolent brat who managed to kill his inquisitor and flee, but at one of only two people presently alive clever enough to know how to incite such rage from him. Only one would try to interfere with his hunting down the remaining Jedi.

"Ahsoka," he growled.

He wanted to go to his ship and comm her immediately, but unfortunately, Imperial duties came higher on the priority list than dealing with his co-conspirator outmaneuvering him. Even interrogating and killing the local officials who no doubt had something to do with the false Jedi lead and the resulting ambush didn't quell his anger. And the first thing he did upon getting on his ship, before even leaving the atmosphere, was used the heavily encrypted comm that was one of a pair to contact Ahsoka.

She answered almost immediately, almost like she'd been waiting for him to contact her. She confirmed as much with her greeting words.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to contact me."

"You set me up," he accused.

She rolled her eyes, "I didn't set you up."

"Your little protégé tried to kill me."

"I heard you formally met Diya," Ahsoka said chirpily with a grin on her face. "You know, if you hadn't become a Sith and obliterated the Order and I hadn't renounced being a Jedi, and she'd been discovered and brought to the temple, I think she would have fit right in with our lineage. You think the Council would have let me train her?"

"_Ahsoka_."

She rolled her eyes. "She didn't try to kill you. She escaped from you. If she'd been trying to kill you, she would have failed. Rest assured. She's been reprimanded."

"Yet, you sent her here to spring this little trap of yours anyway."

"I didn't even know you'd be there. Whatever rebel faction you ran into, they weren't affiliated with me. Besides, I'm not stupid enough to think that a group of a couple of hundred fighters with some top-grade blasters and a couple of bombs is anywhere near enough to take you out even if I wanted to. If I needed to make it look like you were being set up, I would have warned you. For all that we disagree, I wouldn't do that to you. I wouldn't do that to Luke and Leia." When he didn't let up his dark glower, she sighed and said, "Give me a little credit. I have no intention to betray you."

"So you don't consider sending your little protégé around the galaxy to kill inquisitors a betrayal," Vader snapped.

"You hate the inquisitors."

"They serve a purpose."

"A purpose I don't agree with," said Ahsoka, the set of her lips turned to show how solemn and determined she was. "You and I are never going to agree on what to do about the Jedi. But I figure if you can go around hunting them down with your special task force, I can have a special task force that brings them to safety and gets your inquisitors out the way."

The finality in her tone told Vader he wasn't going to be able to talk her out of anything. She'd set her mind to do this knowing he'd be furious.

"Stooping to murder?" he growled. "Oh, how the supposedly former, mighty Jedi knight has fallen."

"No. I'm giving the inquisitors a chance to stop hunting Jedi and turn that anger on the Emperor instead of their former fellow Jedi," Ahsoka argued. "Diya made the call to skip that part. Her excuse was that you were there."

A pitiful one at that. Based on looks and mannerisms alone, Diya and Ahsoka were definitely related one way or another. But Diya had a steely viciousness to her just looking for an outlet, and with the bare minimum reason, she took it. Ahsoka had the same viciousness when pushed, but her kindness and forgiving nature heavily tempered it. While part of Vader admired it, he had every intention of killing the girl the next time they unwittingly crossed paths.

"So, you stoop to murder unless they decide to join your cause," Vader stated.

"It's not murder. It's defending innocent people from becoming further victims of a genocide," Ahsoka said bluntly, not mincing words about what she thought about his Jedi-hunting activities.

"Some would disagree with you about how innocent the Jedi are. You don't even think they're completely innocent," Vader pointed out.

"They're innocent enough that they don't deserve to be eradicated."

"So you think."

"So I know," Ahsoka said evenly. "Doesn't matter either way. My task force is discreet enough that it won't interfere with our plans for the Empire. Equal partners, remember? As long as I'm not interfering with your part of the plan, this is free game."

Vader didn't immediately reply, caught somewhere between fury and eager anticipation. Fury because partners that they were, Ahsoka still decided through her rebellion to find a way to personally undermine him. Ahsoka was foolish to think that just because she had no qualms about helping him conquer the galaxy that other Jedi wouldn't. When they found out what she was really up to, they would betray her—again.

On the other hand, part of him couldn't help the excitement at the prospect of a good challenge, especially against Ahsoka, who would no doubt come up with creative ways to hinder him and respond to the obstacles he put in her way. He'd be forced for once to do more than just go through the boring motions. It might even be _fun_.

"Are you sure you really want to do this, _Tano_?" Vader asked, not even bothering to try to hide his anticipation in the Force as he decided to rise to her challenge.

Ahsoka didn't bother to hide her own anticipation as she smirked, raised an eye marking, and said, "I've already started, _milord._" Then she added, "I'll let the twins know you said hi."

* * *

**AN: **This chapter literally kicked my ass. I wrote it two months ago and have been tweaking and editing it ever since. I'm still not happy with it. Hence why it's late. But whatever. It is what it is. This is the last time Diya shows up in the story for a very long time. In addition to her communications work, she leads Ahsoka's task force to save the remaining Jedi. Contrary to popular belief, she's not going to be playing cupid between Vader and Ahsoka. She despises Vader. She actually thinks Ahsoka should cut her ties with him and speculates about their relationship just because from the outside, it's exceedingly odd. And she's not the only one who will. Over the course of the story, many are going to speculate in a series of interludes from lesser supporting characters.

Currently, I'm writing the fortieth chapter of this story, and that's only the halfway point. I might have to split this into two stories. Maybe three. I'll have to examine the story for where it naturally kind of breaks off and actually figure out how long this story is going to be.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review please!


	22. Same

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Same**

"Mama."

"Yes, Luke," Ahsoka said without opening her eyes.

"How much longer do we have to do this? It's boring."

"Yes," Ahsoka agreed. "Meditating can seem boring. But it'll help you strengthen your connection with the Force and help you learn to keep yourself safe from bad people."

"But Mama, you keep us safe from bad people," Luke said earnestly, causing Ahsoka to smile.

"Yes. I do. But for when I'm not around."

"Like when you go on missions," Leia asked.

"Yes. Now no more talking. Think about something that makes you want to be quiet. Something that makes you feel safe," Ahsoka instructed, opening an eye open to make sure the twin's eyes were still closed. "Got it?"

"Yes," they both chorused.

"Okay. Focus on that. Ten more minutes, and we'll be done for the day."

"Ten minutes! Mama, that's such a l—"

"Quiet," Ahsoka reminded Luke gently.

She heard him sigh, but he did as she instructed or, at the very least, tried to as far as Ahsoka was aware. Sometimes she worried about the twins, both so bright and powerful in the Force. But because it was too dangerous to give them any proper training, they were so behind where they probably would have been at four years old if they'd had a chance to train in the Jedi temple. She tried not to compare their upbringing to her own in the Jedi temple, but it was the only Force teaching way that Ahsoka had to compare. In the temple, at their age, a youngling would have been able to sit in meditation for an hour. But the twins would barely just sit still for thirty minutes on a good day. Today she was struggling to get them to do just twenty.

Ahsoka resisted the urge to sigh, not wanting to disturb Luke's and Leia's maybe meditative state. The twins weren't at the temple getting regular, daily instruction from a multitude of instructors in the Force. Just her when she had the time and patience to instruct them and when it wasn't interrupting their daily tutoring. Frankly, Ahsoka didn't want them to have an upbringing that was like her temple one. They'd eventually learn to control their powers. For now, they had her.

"Mama."

Ahsoka did sigh then. "Yes, Luke."

"Can we be Jedi like you when we grow up?"

Ahsoka didn't immediately answer. How did she tell her four-year-old son that she really would prefer that he didn't?

"I don't know," Ahsoka finally decided on. "And I'm not a Jedi anymore, little one."

Luke ignored the last part. "Why don't you know, Mama?"

"Because there are some other things that you should learn before you make that decision." Never mind that being a Jedi wasn't a decision anyone in recent history got the chance to make. If you were discovered and taken to the temple at a young enough age, that decision was made for you. Not many walked away from that life, even when they had a good reason.

Ever curious, Luke asked, "What things do I need to learn?"

"Things that only growing up some more can teach you. And Jedi meditate daily." They were supposed to anyway. Anakin hadn't—not in any way that the High Council would have approved—and he'd passed down the bad habit to her.

"Well, I don't know if I want to be a Jedi," Leia piped up.

"And that's fine. You've got plenty of time to figure it out," Ahsoka said, deciding they were getting nowhere with meditation today. "Okay. Enough meditating."

"Yay!" both children exclaimed as they jumped up from their seats to lean over Ahsoka's thighs on either side.

"Mama, can you teach me how to use a blaster?" Leia asked.

"Can you teach me how to fly?" Luke asked.

"Leia, why do you want to learn how to shoot a blaster?"

"So I can shoot bad guys like the Black Krayt," Leia said, referencing a charming scoundrel in a cartoon show that, in hindsight, Ahsoka wasn't sure she should have let Leia watch. Still, knowing how to handle a blaster was a useful skill to have.

"When you're a couple of years older," Ahsoka replied.

Leia huffed and crossed her arms. "You always say that, Mama."

"When can I learn to fly?" asked Luke.

"When you're a couple of years older."

Leia gave Luke a pointed look, and Ahsoka choked back a laugh at her outdone expression.

"See," Leia said, rolling her eyes dramatically. "That's always her answer. Mama never lets us do anything."

"Yes, she does!" Luke said.

"Like what?"

Luke seemed to be at a loss for words here, not as quick and ready with them as Leia was.

"Told you!" Leia said with a triumphant giggle.

"Mama, tell Leia you let us do a lot of things."

"I do," Ahsoka replied. She probably gave them a lot more leeway than they should have at this age. Before either twin could answer that, she decided to end the argument. The two of them could go on bickering about anything for hours if she let them. "I think Winter might be awake from her nap now. Let's go see if she's out in the gardens with her mother."

The twins jumped up to go find shoes while Ahsoka found her boots where she'd left them near the door. The twins came back, seemingly ready to go, but Ahsoka ended up having to put Luke's shoes on the right feet and send them both back to get their coats.

"Mama. I can't find my ball or Luke's plane," Leia said in distress when they came back in their coats.

Ahsoka used the Force to summon them from the top shelf she'd put both items on the day before after Luke and Leia had both knocked over the plant in the corner from throwing things inside that were meant to be thrown outside. It had occured to neither to use the Force to summon the toys back down.

Both giggled as they grabbed their respective toys out the air in front of them, all ready to go.

They walked ahead of Ahsoka as they went to the gardens, knowing their home almost better than Ahsoka knew it. Like Ahsoka knew she would at this time of day, she found Breha sitting in the middle of the snowy gardens without a thought or care of the snow staining her beautiful dress. She laughed when her daughter presented her with a flower that survived the snowstorm of a few days ago.

"Winter," Luke and Leia shouted, running to the girl as though they hadn't just seen her that morning at breakfast.

Effectively distracted, Winter dropped the flower in her mother's lap and went to play with her two companions.

Ahsoka dropped down to sit next to Breha, who was now twirling the flower in her hand.

"How are you, my friend? You've been on planet for an entire two weeks, and somehow we haven't had the chance to catch up," Breha said wistfully.

"Feeling like I'm constantly exhausted and that there aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I need to. I finish one task, and then three more things are brought to my attention," Ahsoka replied to the woman.

"Ah, yes. I empathize with you. Such is the life of leadership. Always something to do. And then trying to find the balance with being a wife and mother. Just a mother for you, though no less of a balancing act, all things considered," Breha added. "But from what I've heard, you're doing a phenomenal job."

"It's not through my efforts alone. I have a lot of help from the right people."

"That might be true. But I don't think without you there would have been nearly as much progress with you and my husband's outreach project as you've managed in these last two years," Breha said, using the name they called the fledging rebellion when there might be ears around to hear them. The Alderaan Palace was relatively secure, but they could never be too careful. "My mother told me when I was young and preparing to become queen that the mark of a great leader is not that she has the answer to everything or that she can even do everything. But a great leader is brave enough to admit that she doesn't have all the answers and is willing to find those who do have the answers and place them where they are most needed to help the people that trust her to lead them."

"I guess. Sometimes it feels like I'm not doing enough."

"That's a good feeling to have. If you don't feel like you could be doing more, you become complacent with your position and corrupted by the power that comes with positions like ours," said Breha.

Ahsoka wondered just how much Breha knew about the slowly shifting dynamics in the leadership structure of the rebellion that she now compared her queenship to Ahsoka's role. Technically, the rebellion had a very loose command structure with senators like Bail and Mon and a couple of generals, like Ahsoka at the top. Bail and Mon had been the point people, using their positions in the Senate to both try to get any leverage changing the Empire from within the system. At the same time, they used their access to find allies and help from outside the red tape of the Empire. That changed once Ahsoka took a prominent role.

Bail and Mon still got information on possible allies and tips on what the Empire was doing from the senatorial perspective, but Ahsoka dealt with the day to day running of the rebellion. She was the one with the most freedom since she was suspected dead—at the very least MIA to the Empire. Not to mention her Imperial contact, whose identity she wouldn't disclose but kept her just a hairsbreadth ahead of the Empire. If there was any de-facto leader of their organized network of rebellion, Ahsoka was the one. Frankly, she'd expected it to take a lot longer, to not be this easy to rise to the head of the rebellion so quickly.

"But don't be too hard on yourself. It's okay to take a break. What you've done in such a short amount of time is commendable," said Breha. Then she added in a low tone, "Especially with the Jedi."

Ahsoka made a humming sound at that.

"It's not that hard. They're Jedi."

"Yes, but you don't know how many Jedi my husband got in contact with who turned him down, preferring to work alone. And who could blame them? With the way the government they served turned on them," Breha said with a sigh. "But I think seeing another Jedi so determined and breaking ground like you gives them hope."

Ahsoka held back a scoff. So they thought now. Wait until they found out who she was working with.

"I don't profess to be a Jedi anymore. You know that. The few Jedi we've managed to make contact with know that. If they're changing their minds about helping, it's not because I'm a Jedi," Ahsoka argued.

"Maybe not. But I do think seeing you charge ahead anyway makes them not feel so alone. I heard that the sudden extermination was painful for those near the core when it happened," Breha added.

Ahsoka frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know much about the Force," Breha admitted. "But one of the padawans Diya brought through briefly a few months ago, the one that managed to escape Imperial Center... I heard them telling Diya about how much it hurt to feel all the deaths of the people they'd grown up with when it first happened. For a moment, she couldn't even breathe. That they even still have nightmares about that bright spot where all the Jedi were suddenly going dark."

Ahsoka's frown deepened, and seeing that she was bothered, Breha was quick to apologize. But for the wrong thing.

"I apologize if that brought up bad memories and feelings."

"It's okay," Ahsoka muttered, shaking her head.

"You have so much on your shoulders for someone so young. Sometimes, it makes me wish there was a way I could do more."

"You're doing enough," Ahsoka assured, gaze going to where Luke and Leia were both trying to show Winter how to do a forward roll. "Besides, you have a lot to risk."

"So do you," Breha said and then leaned over and placed a chaste kiss on Ahsoka's cheek.

It was an Alderaanian thing to do. A show of platonic love, trust, family, and close bonds. Sisterhood, in this case. A show of solidarity for a shared cause.

"Thank you, Breha," Ahsoka said, returning the kiss on the woman's cheek.

"You're always welcome, Ahsoka." Breha then turned to Ahsoka with a grin on her lips as she said, "Now, let me catch you up on palace dealings. It always seems like everything juicy happens at the same time. And always when you're away on a mission."

Ahsoka managed a laugh at that. Breha, as it turned out, loved to gossip, and Ahsoka was one of the few people that the woman could let down around to indulge in the habit.

Breha's palace gossip was only a temporary distraction from Ahsoka's thoughts about the Jedi, though. Even her renouncement didn't keep her from Jedi dealings, namely intercepting Vader and his inquisitors in their hunt to exterminate the remaining Jedi. Her agents didn't always find Jedi in time to intervene. Even when they did, it sometimes meant days and weeks losing the trail of an inquisitor before Ahsoka could safely place the rescued Jedi in hiding with one of her resistance cells.

The Jedi were nothing if not resilient though—even through dealing with nightmares from feeling the deaths of the Jedi throughout the galaxy for some, particularly the small minority who managed to escape Coruscant.

Ahsoka had her own nightmares to deal with. You didn't just go unscathed when your best friend betrayed you. Even now, Ahsoka had her fears that with Palpatine as their common enemy, the promise of absolute power, and the prospect of having his children safe and near him, it wouldn't be enough to keep Vader from turning on them again. But she didn't have nightmares about feeling the death of the Jedi. She didn't even remember feeling it at all except for a sharp warning of things to come from the Force, even though she'd been on Coruscant and watched the temple burn from Padmé's apartment window.

Ahsoka should have felt it. She should have felt the people she'd grown up with and considered family dying in the only home she'd ever had. Or who'd she'd considered family at one point. Where she'd considered home at one point. By the time the Empire had risen, it had just been a place she laid her head when she was on Coruscant, the people there little more than fellow coworkers and colleagues that were in the same line of work that she was. The Order had been lost to her long before it had fallen.

But had she been so detached, so bitter, so angry that she hadn't felt the sting of all those deaths? Had she been so far removed that she hadn't been able to sense their suffering while being right in the center of it?

She didn't have a lot of people to discuss it with for comparison's sake. Certainly not to a lone Jedi knight that she'd come across and now the padawan that Breha had overheard talking to Diya, both who sensed the deaths. Obi-wan was an option, but when they talked two years ago, she hadn't left on precisely good terms. Then there was Vader…

She turned the comm he'd given her in her hand once again.

"This is a stupid idea," Ahsoka muttered to herself. But she'd thought the same thing about ever working on the same side with Vader again, and that had… well, it was working alright, she guessed.

Ahsoka clicked on the comm and then tapped the button to connect to the only code programmed into the device. There was no telling what he was doing at any given time in the galaxy. For all she knew, he might be in the middle of a mission. He probably wouldn't answer. And when he didn't answer, she'd shake her head at her silliness and—

"_What?"_ the holo image of Vader, in full suit and armor, said, sitting in what looked like his office.

Ahsoka stared. Now faced with Vader, she wasn't sure why it had even been an option to contact him about something like this in the first place.

She shook her head. "Never mind. I didn't expect you to answer. I shouldn't have comm'd in the first place."

Ahsoka reached to disconnect the comm but found the grip of the Force not quite staying her hand. It felt more like someone gently placing their hand on top of hers to give her pause.

"_What?"_ Vader insisted.

"Are you doing that?" Ahsoka asked. "Through the comm?"

He knew what she was talking about without her specifying. _"A skill I'm working on perfecting. Now what?"_

"I… just have a question to ask. That's all."

"_Of course you did. Otherwise, you would not have comm'd me. About what?"_

Sensing him getting impatient, Ahsoka decided to stop beating around the bush.

"About when the Emperor gave the order to kill the Jedi," Ahsoka blurted out. "Did you… I mean, I knew it was happening, but I didn't feel it. Not like other J—Not like other people I've talked to did. Even a younger one."

He didn't answer immediately. Only stared at her with his arms crossed, and Ahsoka could just picture him without his mask, an eyebrow raised and a smirk playing his lips. A sound came out his voice modulator that Ahsoka was sure was supposed to be a laugh and confirmed her suspicions.

"_Finally coming to the realization that you renounced and detached yourself from the Jedi long before you finally came to your senses and made it official?"_ he asked.

Ahsoka huffed. She didn't even know why she expected anything productive from this conversation.

As though reading her mind, Vader asked in a mocking tone, _"What did you expect me to say, Ahsoka? That I felt anything but power and accomplishment for every Jedi that I struck down? That I would somehow make you feel better by saying that despite not feeling anything when I struck them down, I felt some sort of guilt or ill feelings for their extermination? I felt nothing, Ahsoka. Just like you felt nothing."_

Annoyed that he still knew her so well, despite his denial of the time period that he got to know her so well, Ahsoka shot back evenly, "Is that so? Even when you were slaughtering younglings?"

That struck a nerve. Ahsoka would have known that even if she hadn't felt him falter in the Force, before he brought the dark side around him like a shield, just like he used to shield himself and his hurts with his anger. She didn't know if the fact that she still knew him so well was comforting or dismaying.

"No guilt, huh?" she asked.

"_You just don't want to face that you're not as different from me as you've made yourself think you are,"_ he said, ignoring her accusation. _"The same anger. The same bitterness. The same hatred."_

"I'm not a Sith. I won't turn to the dark side."

"_I never said you would. But that doesn't mean you're not just the same as I am."_

Berating herself for making this call at all and not willing to play Vader's games anymore, Ahsoka cut the call, ignoring the attempt to stay her hand to prevent her.

* * *

**AN: **I haven't featured Luke and Leia in a chapter in a while. And yes, they're older than the toddlers that they were a few chapters ago, and Ahsoka can't get them to sit still for very long. Even in that interaction, Ahsoka experiences the push and pull of having been a Jedi and knowing she doesn't want to live that life anymore, but not quite sure what her life or options she has as a Force user will be if she's not.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review Please!


	23. Confrontation

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Confrontation**

Vader had obviously revisited the training of the inquisitors, Ahsoka thought to herself as she listened to one of her task agents, a human named Jace, report on his mission to extract a Jedi. None of their usual diversion tactics to lose track of an inquisitor were working, and none of the agents from her task Force that she'd sent to extract the Jedi and possibly take down the Inquisitor had succeeded yet. In fact, she'd lost two agents to this particular inquisitor in the four months they'd been trying to help their Jedi charge get away.

Ahsoka wasn't even surprised. She knew when she let Vader know of her intentions to stop the inquisitors that he wouldn't take such a challenge lying down. So it was no shock that her mission had gotten much harder since. Then there was the fact that he was determined to prove his point to her about being detached from the Jedi just like he was, likely thinking that the harder he made things for her, the more likely she would give up what he no doubt thought was a foolish endeavor.

And perhaps it was foolish. She saved what few Jedi remained now, integrated them into her rebel network, and then what would she do with them when she helped Vader defeat Palpatine and become emperor? Fight another war, this time with a rebellion led by the Jedi she'd let live because they would never allow a Sith to rule the galaxy? Would she be forced to turn her blade against the Jedi when they inevitably came against Vader and her for what some would perceive as a betrayal? Would she be willing to? Would they be right to worry about Vader at the helm of the galaxy? Probably, was the answer to most of those questions.

Ahsoka shook her head. She couldn't worry about hypotheticals that might happen in the future. Hypotheticals she wouldn't even have to bother with if she didn't strengthen her rebellion enough to fight against the forces of Palpatine's Empire that Vader couldn't get on his side. She wasn't sure what Vader's idea of the Empire looked like, but she knew that whatever it was, she'd do everything in her power to curb his darker tendencies. And that started right now by continuing to keep the Jedi out his and his inquisitor's grasp.

"Send me your next coordinates," Ahsoka decided. "I'll deal with that inquisitor next time he tracks you."

The holo of Jace faltered and said, "General?"

Ahsoka could imagine he was certainly surprised. She gave orders and approved missions and even took assignments to get intel and assess situations personally in Imperial spaces too dangerous for her best agents. But she never joined her Jedi task force in finding Jedi and tracking inquisitor movement.

"We've been trying to shake this inquisitor for months. Obviously, he's a tricky one. Asking you to retrieve Jedi and deal with inquisitors is a lot for me to ask of you to begin with. I won't let you continue to endanger yourself for a mission that's obviously so risky," Ahsoka decided as she stood from the seat in a hidden underground conference room in the Alderaan Palace where she conducted rebellion business when she wasn't off-planet. "I'll let you know my ETA and give you specifics about where we'll rendezvous once I've looked at the coordinates. In the meantime, tell the Jedi that the Fulcrum is coming to assist."

She cut the call after that, not wanting to stay connected any longer than she needed to for fear that someone might trace them. Diya had assured and shown her that the calls she made on the underground network she'd set up couldn't be traced back to Alderaan. But conducting any rebellion business on Alderaan at all was too risky as far as Ahsoka was concerned.

She decided to find Luke and Leia before doing any preparation to leave. They were in their room like they usually were in the evenings, playing a game of pretend with their toys spread across the floor. It looked like they were re-enacting one of the clone wars stories that she'd told them and disagreeing about a detail of the story she'd given them.

"You're both wrong," Ahsoka said with a grin. The two instantly paused their bickering, watching as she got down on the floor and rearranged the pieces of their reenactment of their infiltration of the Citadel.

"Oh," Leia said sourly, liking to be wrong as much as her dad used to.

"Told you you were wrong," Luke said smugly.

"Yeah. But, you weren't right either, " Leia said, sticking her tongue out at Luke, who returned the gesture in kind.

Being that this was as good a time as ever, Ahsoka said, "I have to leave for work tonight."

"Can we go?" Luke asked, hopefully.

"No," Ahsoka said flatly.

"Aw man," Luke said, pouting and crossing his arms.

At least he was pouting because he couldn't go, not because she was leaving at all. If Luke and Leia reacted anything like Winter did when her dad had to leave to spend time on Coruscant, Ahsoka wasn't sure she'd ever leave them. That said, she didn't think either particularly liked when she was away, but one thing she picked up through their bond was that they had an unshakeable faith that she'd always be back.

"When I get back," Ahsoka continued, "we'll try to go see your dad."

Their eyes lit up at that, and she sensed their excitement at getting to spend time with the man. Keeping the existence of their father a secret was the one thing she could get them to take seriously. She wasn't sure why. Maybe because it was the only thing she asked them to be serious about. Maybe because they sensed her apprehension about anyone finding out that Anakin Skywalker wasn't as dead as people thought him to be. Or maybe they just saw it as a game that they didn't want to lose, especially as competitive as Leia was and since Luke would never willingly lose anything against his sister.

"Good. I have many important things to tell him," Leia said seriously.

Luke groaned and rolled his eyes, while Ahsoka frowned. She'd have to ask Leia later what exactly it was she wanted to tell Vader about. Although she was sure Vader had an idea that the twins spent some time in the core because they talked about Bail and, especially, Breha all the time, he didn't know for sure where they were hiding. A measure so that if he were ever compromised, the Emperor wouldn't find out where they were hiding. A measure that meant sometimes dissuading the twins from asking Vader certain questions or having certain conversations. Something that Vader saw the necessity of if it meant keeping them safe because while they disagreed on a lot of other things, they agreed that keeping the twins safe was the top priority, hence why Luke and Leia were so excited about the prospect of a visit. Visits with Vader weren't comment.

"Alright," Ahsoka said. "Clean up. Then bedtime."

The coordinates for the Jedi and her field agent came through in the middle of Luke's and Leia's bedtime routine. Bacrana, in the Expansion Region. About a three-day trip. Ahsoka would have to do some research about to come up with a plan of action, but there would be time enough for that on the trip there.

"When will you come back," Luke asked when they were in pajamas, rushing to stand on the stool placed in front of the holo calendar displayed on the wall in the room.

"It's going to take me three days to get there," Ahsoka began, and Luke found the current date and counted three from there. "And after that, it just depends on how quickly things happen."

"What things?" Luke asked.

Things like how long it took for the Inquisitor to ambush them or them to ambush the Inquisitor so Ahsoka could either convince them to join her or kill them. She could arrive on-planet and find the inquisitor had beat her there and quickly engage them, or she'd have to lay out a trap that would either ruin their trace or bring them right to her to deal with.

"Maybe a week," Ahsoka gave.

Luke went into the next week of the same day.

"And then three days to get back, right?" Luke asked, counting three more days.

"Maybe," Ahsoka said, but that didn't stop Luke from marking a little diamond on the day to signal her expected return. "Aunt Breha will tell you if anything changes for certain."

Leia, who was sitting on the bed, shrugged and said, "You'll be back really soon. I saw it."

"And how did you see it?" Ahsoka asked with a raised eye marking.

"The Force, Mama," Leia said with a roll of her eyes as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

It probably was to her and Luke. Ahsoka had a feeling this was a sign that they'd certainly inherited their father's power of precognition. She'd have to figure out a way to train them to deal with that because the last thing she wanted was them following their dad's footsteps because they let a vision drive them insane.

"Don't be sad, Mama. We'll be fine," Luke said.

Ahsoka checked her shields. She hadn't meant for them to sense her worry through their bond. Then, without bothering with any discretion, she quickly changed the subject and put them to bed.

The only thing she had to retrieve from her room was her lightsaber, and then she went to find Breha, who was just getting to her chambers after a long day.

"Do you think you'll make it back for Winter's birthday? I don't think she'll be happy if her Aunt 'Soka's not part of the celebrations. And then I won't be happy with you," Breha joked, giving Ahsoka a feigned glare.

"Three weeks, right?" Ahsoka asked and Breha nodded in confirmation. "I should be. This job shouldn't take that long. Hopefully."

Breha nodded and hugged Ahsoka, pleading with her to make sure she was careful and saying she'd make sure to tell the cooks to prepared Luke's and Leia's favorite breakfast in the morning. Ahsoka tried not to think of why Breha made a habit of doing that and made her way to one of the Palace's more discreet hangers to get ready to leave. Artoo was already there, having warmed up the ship, and then they were off, leaving Alderaan's atmosphere. Just before they left the atmosphere, Ahsoka felt the combined effort of Luke and Leia reaching out to her.

"_We love you, mama," _they sent, powerful enough now that she could hear their voices across the bond now in addition to the impression of feelings they usually sent.

"_I love you too. Behave for Breha," _she sent back and got in return all too innocent waves of reassurance that promised mischief in the future, like racing around on their hoverbikes through the palace.

Ahsoka spent the next three days planning for her extraction and placement of the Jedi. Best case scenario? Ahsoka quietly lost the Inquisitor's trace and was able to place the Jedi with a resistance cell somewhere in the Outer Rim, where they could lie low. Worst case scenario? She ended up having to make a little noise to confront the Inquisitor and probably kill them.

Three and half years fighting the clone wars, and nearly eight years knowing Anakin—regardless of what name he went by now—taught Ahsoka to expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised and grateful if things turned out for the best. So she wasn't surprised when she got to the coordinates on Bacrana and found her agent and the Jedi in the middle of trying to flee from the Inquisitor that found them first. So much for losing the inquisitor…

Without announcing herself, Ahsoka drew her lightsabers to her hand and attacked the inquisitor from behind. He sensed her and blocked the attack, but Ahsoka expected that and flipped backward onto her feet, before going in for another attack.

"Get to my ship," she yelled to her agent and the Jedi, as she ducked an attack for the inquisitor's red blade.

She couldn't see the Jedi's face under hood up, but Ahsoka could tell they hesitated to follow the instruction out of concern for her. Her agent, though, had no such qualms about following the order and guided the Jedi to Ahsoka's ship while Ahsoka distracted the inquisitor. He was some species that Ahsoka wasn't familiar with, having wrinkly grey skin and black eyes with a lot of tone and mass in his physique.

A weakness of all the inquisitors was that even though they were fallen, the ones that were former Jedi still fought like Jedi. That contrast between fighting like a Jedi and fighting more aggressively like a dark side adept made them weaker and more open to mistakes and hesitancy. She didn't have to wait for that opening to take down the inquisitor, but it gave her time to try to get through to the fallen Jedi.

"You don't have to do this," Ahsoka said to the fallen Jedi. "You have a lot of hate and rage in you. I know what that's like."

"You know nothing," he growled in broken Basic, and Ahsoka guessed he was one of those species whose vocal cords and general anatomy didn't take to speaking Basic well.

Ahsoka jumped back out the way, creating space between her and the inquisitor. Then she said, "I do. And I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't have it, but there's a better way to use it instead of hunting down your former Jedi brothers and sisters. You're upset because they didn't protect you. That they didn't see the Sith coming. That they left you alone. But what do you think the Emperor's going to do with you once there are no more Jedi to kill, and you've outlived your usefulness? What do you think Vader's going to do with you?"

Ahsoka already knew the answer to that. Though Vader was dominant in power over them, the inquisitors were a threat to his place as the Sith apprentice. With no interest in taking any of them as an apprentice himself, his plan was to kill them anyway. He just didn't appreciate Ahsoka trying to do it while they were still somewhat useful to him.

The inquisitor growled, refusing to hear her, and Ahsoka got the opening that she expected. A subtle weakness when using double-bladed sabers and a weakness that dual saber wielders like herself could more easily take advantage of but that could leave her open to attack if she wasn't quick or strong enough.

She parried the inquisitor's angry strike, scissoring the blade in her both her white ones, quickly twisting the blade to the side and using the Force to enhance her strength. The result was that, before the inquisitor could realize what she planned to do, she made him strike himself with the opposite end of his blade, slashing his entire leg off in the process. He cried out and toppled onto his side, his blade falling somewhere next to him.

"You are beaten," Ahsoka said, pointing one of her sabers at him, hyper-aware of where his lightsaber had dropped in case he tried to summon it. "You can stop this, and you can come with me. Or you die."

There was no option. He'd seen her face. And though Diya made a useful decoy, Diya didn't use lightsabers.

The hate and rage in the inquisitor was the only answer she got, and Ahsoka knew that if there was anyone that could turn him from his dark ways, she wasn't the one. Left with no choice, she plunged her lightsaber into his midsection, hoping there was something vital there that would give him an instant death. There was, because it only took a few seconds for his eyes to be overcome with the dullness of death.

Ahsoka extinguished her blades and knelt beside the man, closing his eyes. In another time and place, with the right push, she could have been just like this inquisitor. Then she checked his body for anything that might be useful in tracking down other Inquisitor whereabouts. She found nothing and stood, deciding to leave the lightsaber behind, having no need for its crystals.

She made her way back to her ship and went to the cockpit where her agent was waiting for her with Artoo, the ship's systems already warmed up.

"You won't have any problem being tracked again. At least not by that inquisitor," Ahsoka said to him.

Jace whistled and said, "Diya said if anyone could take out that inquisitor, you could. But I didn't know it would be that quick."

Ahsoka shrugged. "My teacher was pretty intense. Where's the Jedi?"

"In the back," Jace replied. "Me and your astromech will get us out of here."

Ahsoka nodded and made her way to one of two small rooms on the ship she'd chosen to use for this mission. She found the Jedi, hood down, dark hair flowing in loose waves down her back.

"You've been through a great ordeal," Ahsoka said, remembering the reports she'd gotten of this particular case. There had been a lot of near misses with this Jedi. "I just wanted to ensure you were in good health before we discuss your options for further hiding in my network."

The Jedi didn't immediately answer or even turn around. Ahsoka frowned, preparing herself to have to deal with some sort of trauma. Jedi were technically supposed to be able to shake it off, but you just didn't shake off becoming the target of genocide and running for your life for the last five years.

"Are you al—"

The Jedi turned around, and the words die on Ahsoka's tongue. With how constricted her chest felt, she wondered if her heart might give out under the strain of her shock and the immediate conflict that built up in her.

Finally, she found the ability to speak again and said barely above a whisper, "Barriss."

* * *

**AN:** I got a lot of questions about what other Jedi would Ahsoka run into. Well, an ex-padawan who used to be one of her closest friends. Wonder how that will turn out...

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!


	24. Barriss

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Barriss**

Righteous hate and fury simmered deep in Ahsoka's heart on most days. If it hadn't been there, Vader wouldn't have been so hellbent on turning her to the dark side. He wasn't actively trying anymore and seemed to enjoy the challenge of her resistance, but she knew he wouldn't be terribly upset if she did agree to become his Sith apprentice.

Her approach to dealing with the hate and fury she harbored was certainly not the Sith approach. The Sith approach was to get revenge. To tear everything down that might get in the way of that revenge. To destroy everything that might even be remotely responsible for that hate and rage. The Jedi way to go about dealing with it was much quieter. To overcome those feelings and let those feelings go into the Force, never daring to do anything with them.

Ahsoka's approach was a blending of the two. Use the hate and fury to selflessly drive her to something better for the galaxy so no one would experience the things that made her hateful and angry. Use the hate and anger to drive her to something productive that would build something beautiful. The Order would have called it blasphemy. But Ahsoka stopped caring what the Order would say a long time ago.

But right then, staring at Barriss for the first time since the older former padawan framed her, Ahsoka was tempted to take the Sith approach to all this.

The last thing Ahsoka had heard of Barriss Offee was that she'd been in prison for the last part of the Clone Wars. Apparently, after the debacle that was nearly sentencing the wrong Jedi to death for a crime she hadn't committed, the Senate nor the Jedi could afford the PR nightmare of making a mistake again. While Barriss had been convicted at her trial, rather than facing immediate execution, she'd been waiting for an appeal date. Because, somehow, the confession didn't matter. Everyone involved suddenly cared about the quality of the evidence.

Ahsoka and Barriss were friends. What if they'd had conspired together? What if Barriss just decided to take the fall, unable to bear seeing Ahsoka die for their plan? What if someone planted the lightsabers in her room, and she was left with no choice but to defend herself against wild accusations made against her by her superior while he threatened her with a lightsaber? What if it was a false confession under duress because of Anakin Skywalker's actions?

Suddenly, everyone was willing and ready to ask the questions that no one had cared to ask Ahsoka. Even with her name cleared, the stain of being falsely implicated in Barriss' terrorist plot followed Ahsoka that last year in the Clone Wars. There had still been people who thought she was guilty and should have faced execution—even Jedi.

So while Ashoka hadn't gone down for the crime like Barriss had intended, the botched handling of Ahsoka in the matter saved Barriss in a way. Long enough for her to apparently escape custody in the chaos of a violent regime change.

"Ahsoka," Barriss finally said.

Surprise. Shame. Guilt. Timid joy. Those were just a few of the things Ahsoka felt from Barriss as the woman stared at her. Ahsoka wasn't exactly sure where to start with all that.

"In the flesh," Ahsoka finally settled on as an answer.

"They told me… they didn't tell me you were coming. They told me the Fulcrum was coming in person."

"I am the Fulcrum."

It was a simple admission, but one that definitely complicated everything in ways that Ahsoka was sure Barriss was aware of by the slowly dawning realization in her eyes. That her wellbeing lay in the hands of the person to whom Barriss' last act was to frame her for murder. The power that Ahsoka knew this gave her over the older woman gave her little satisfaction.

"You're… You're the leader of the rebel alliance?" Barriss asked.

"Effectively," Ahsoka replied and then raised an eye marking. "What? Expected someone older? Or just not me?"

"Both."

"Sorry to disappoint you then," Ahsoka said in a haughty, shruggish manner. "You wouldn't be the only one. If I'd known you were the Jedi, I would have left you to the inquisitor."

Barriss sighed. "I deserve that."

Somehow, the woman's resigned tone managed only to infuriate Ahsoka more.

"Ahsoka," her agent said from the cockpit before Ahsoka could say something out of that fury, "we've got a problem."

Ahsoka went back to the cockpit. She'd have to deal with Barriss later.

"What's going on?" Ahsoka asked, but a quick look at the computer showed her the problem. "We're being trailed."

"We can't shake him. Whoever it is? They're good."

Artoo made a noise of agreement, and Ashoka groaned. Could nothing just be straightforward?

"They're getting in firing distance. Are the shields up?" Ahsoka asked as she watched the pursuer gain on them despite the maneuvers Jace and Artoo were pulling, trying to shake them.

"Yes," came the reply just as the ship shook with a hit.

"I'm taking over," Ahsoka said as she sat down.

She quickly gained speed, guiding them up into the atmosphere and a raging storm over one of the expansive seas of the planet.

"They're still on us," Jace said.

"I know that," Ahsoka said, directing her agent to activate the limited weapons capability on the ship. She took a deep breath and retreated into the Force to give her calm and focus, to help her put aside her conflict that she was doing this to protect someone she owed nothing. Once Ahsoka set those feelings aside, she felt the presence she'd missed. The presence she should have felt long before even the sensors picked their pursuer.

"Kriff," Ahsoka muttered.

"What?" her agent asked.

"We're not going to be able to shake him."

"Him?"

"Vader."

Her agent cursed as the ship shook with another hit. Vader was really kriffing shooting her ship, knowing she was on it. Because there was no way she could sense him, and he didn't sense her.

"Brace yourself," Ahsoka warned loudly.

"For what?"

They were shot again, enough to blast through their shields and send them into a descent.

"For our crash landing," Ahsoka informed as alarms began to go off in the ship. "Strap in."

She fought to keep the ship as steady as possible while they quickly began to descend through the storm clouds until they crashed into rocky forest terrain. Ahsoka tried to steer them clear of most obstructions as they slowed to a stop, but still the side of the ship slammed into a rocky wall. She didn't have Anakin's expertise in crashing ships, but at least hitting the wall stopped their momentum.

Ahsoka took a moment to collect herself before asking, "Everyone okay?"

"Yes," came everyone's reply.

Ahsoka nodded in acknowledgment as she stood to check on the ship. She didn't smell any fuel or fire, so hopefully, they could stay on the ship for shelter. They'd landed on stable terrain, and she didn't see any immediate danger as she did her inspection, trying her best to use the little plastic coverings she'd found to shield her from the elements.

"I think we can stay here for shelter," Ahsoka said after she told Jace and Barriss about her findings outside.

"What about Vader?" her agent asked.

"If there was any debris from the crash that would lead him to us, the storm is covering it up. Besides, I think Vader's even smart enough to know that his chances of finding us in this storm are slim. He'll wait until it clears up some. That gives us enough time to call someone out here for help. Our communication system should still be up and running. Look at our network and see who's close enough to send a message to so they can get us out of here. Tell them we need them asap," Ahsoka ordered.

"You hope," Jace said skeptically by went back to the cockpit to do as Ahsoka told, leaving her in the room with Barriss again.

If she were still just another Jedi, former or no, on the run from the Empire, Ahsoka might have just decided to ignore her. But she was the leader of not just _a _rebellion but _the_ rebellion. The Fulcrum. She had a job to do. That was what Barriss was. Just another job, one of many duties she had that took her away from her children. Stars, she had to leave Luke and Leia to save Barriss Offee of all people.

Ahsoka sighed. So not _just_ a job.

Finally, she said, "I shouldn't have said that earlier. About leaving you to the inquisitor."

"You've never been one not to be honest about your feelings," Barriss replied with a sad smile. "To be honest, if I'd know you were the Fulcrum, I might not have accepted the rebellion's offer of assistance at all when your agent found me."

"Good to know we agree on that," Ahsoka commented dryly. "But I've gone through the trouble of coming to get you now. I might have been willing to leave you to the inquisitor, but I'm not cruel enough to leave you to Vader."

"Vader?" Barriss asked. "Who's he?"

Ahsoka wasn't surprised that Barriss didn't know who the man was. Infamous as he was in the circles that knew him and paid attention, glimpses of Vader on the holonet were rare since he avoided the public eye—and that was if you were lucky enough to live somewhere in the galaxy with consistent holonet access. Encounters with Vader were even rarer. Surviving encounters with him were unheard of. It was entirely possible that even five years since the rise of the Empire, a lot of people didn't know who he was despite the ghost stories spread across the galaxy about the "dark monster." Her agents knew about him because she wasn't sending them out to retrieve Jedi without telling them about the chief Jedi hunter. The same line of reasoning went toward why she explicitly told rebel cells hiding Jedi about Vader.

"A powerful Sith that helped the emperor rise to power. He was directly responsible for the attack on the Jedi Temple when the purge started," Ahsoka replied.

"A Sith? The Sith the Jedi were looking for?"

"No. His apprentice. Palpatine was the Sith the Jedi were looking for," Ahsoka corrected.

Barriss didn't reply to that, and Ahsoka wondered exactly what was going through the woman's head at the revelation. In her private moments, when she let herself think about the mistakes of the past that led them to where they were and how she would course correct them, she admitted to herself that Barriss had been right about the Republic and the Jedi. It didn't erase that she disagreed with how Barriss had gone about trying to bring attention to the matter or the anger Ahsoka had towards her for framing her, but she'd been right.

"How do you know all this?"

"I was on Coruscant when it happened."

"So was I. But I didn't know all that."

Of course, she didn't, Ahsoka started to point out. She'd been in prison at the time. But even if she hadn't been, Barriss wouldn't have known that information. The only reason Ahsoka knew it was because Anakin had been trying to recruit her to take down Palpatine and be the next Sith apprentice. Ahsoka doubted Barriss would ever get the opportunity to tell anyone important, but she couldn't be too cautious. Ahsoka needed a plausible way of knowing everything she did.

"You were in prison," Ahsoka said bluntly. "Even if it hadn't been classified High Council business, you wouldn't have known it. The only reason I did was because Anakin figured it out and told me."

"I… what happened? To Anakin? Is he…?"

"He was at the temple during the attack," Ahsoka replied evenly, knowing what Barriss would assume from that. Knowing what any Jedi who knew her and wasn't on Mustafar would assume from it. Unless they knew, they would never fathom that Anakin Skywalker, unorthodox of a Jedi as he'd been, would turn on them. It was unfathomable unless you knew it happened. Just like it had been unfathomable that Barriss, her friend and frequently called an ideal padawan, would bomb the temple and then frame Ahsoka for it. Then again, Ahsoka supposed if you saw it coming, if it wasn't a friend or the person you least expected, it wasn't a betrayal.

Ahsoka decided that she'd more than finished her duty as the Fulcrum and started to leave the other former Jedi again.

"Ahsoka," Barriss suddenly called out.

"What?" Ahsoka said, pausing mid-step.

Barriss hesitated. Then she said, "I'm sorry."

"For what? For dragging me out here to save you? For Anakin being at the temple during the attack? For framing me for your crime? Would you be sorry for anything if the Force hadn't brought us together?" Ahsoka asked. She didn't wait for an answer. "If you think this is a gift from the Force to give you absolution from your sins, then you shouldn't bother. I'm not in a forgiving mood. Haven't been for a while now. So here's what happens today. I get you out of here. We drop you off somewhere in relative safety where you can hide, and the rebellion has nothing more to do with you."

Vader must have been rubbing off on her. That was something he would have said.

…

Kriff.

Vader.

Suddenly, this was a lot more complicated than keeping another Jedi out of Vader's hands. One thing that Vader retained from his previous Jedi life under the name of Anakin Skywalker (along with all his other darker traits) was his possessive and protective nature. As a Jedi, though, he'd had a strict moral code and tenants that he'd loosely—but at least attempted to—adhere to that kept him from crossing too far a line in his desire to protect and avenge the people he deemed his own. But Vader crossed that line long ago. And while Ahsoka's alliance and relationship with Vader was complicated on the best of days, Ahsoka did know that he thought of her as one of his own people. He always had. Even when they spent two years apart, being pissed off at and hating each other, he did. It was the only reason that while he only barely tolerated her, he didn't seem to have ever wanted to kill her. If he'd wanted to kill her, he'd never had heard her out back on Sheba. He'd never have been interested in taking her on as a Sith apprentice. He'd never have decided to continue to entrust his children with her.

Ahsoka wasn't sure whether that sense of her being his own was out of old sentiment that he'd never admit to or the fact that he seemed to gain genuine entertainment from her. Either way, if Vader figured out that Barriss was the Jedi he was hunting, there would be no safe place in the galaxy for the woman once he started to track her. She'd be a personal vendetta. He'd stop at nothing to avenge Ahsoka and give Barriss the punishment that she'd almost managed to falsely doom Ahsoka to and still managed to avoid once she had been revealed. Despite Ahsoka's own darker feelings toward Barriss, she'd keep her word as the Fulcrum and keep Barriss out of the dark lord's hands if she could help it.

"You get in contact with anyone?" Ahsoka asked her agent as she went to the cockpit, the need for an extraction even more urgent now.

"Yeah. There's a cell nearby. Running a mission to Milagro. I diverted them here. They're an hour out."

It was too long. The Force told Ahsoka so before her agent had confirmed it. She sensed the dark chill of Vader's presence coming closer and cursed herself for being so naïve as to think that a little wind, rain, and thunder might stop him. He'd dueled Obi-wan on a lava river for stars' sake.

"We've got to get out of here," Ahsoka determined.

"But the extraction will be here in—"

"Vader is going to find us long before that," Ahsoka said as she went to where Barriss was and through her a plastic rain cover from their supplies. "If you want to avoid Vader, we need to move. Right now.

Barriss didn't argue with her, putting the plastic on and following Ahsoka and her agent out the ship. The rainstorm, while nowhere near completely dissipating, was letting up, and Vader's dark presence moved quickly towards them. Even if they didn't stop, he'd catch up with them before their ride came.

"You two go ahead. I'll catch up."

"Catch up?"

"Vader's coming. I'll hold him off. Come get pick me up when you've got our ride."

"Hold off Vader? General—"

"That's an order," Ahsoka cut in. Her special agents were a strong-willed group of youth, as only people that Diya liked enough to get on board could be. Thus, she rarely gave them a directive that left no room for argument or interpretation or gave them strict orders. So when she did give them, especially in what Breha had teasingly begun calling her "general's tone," they tended not to argue.

Her agent sighed, but nodded and began to retreat. Artoo and Barriss did not.

"Ahsoka," Barriss said.

"This is a really fine time to start caring about my well-being, Offee. Don't make my coming out here in vain. Get out of here. I can handle Vader," Ahsoka said. "Now either you go willingly, or I stun you, and he carries you. Your choice."

Something Ahsoka said got Barriss moving. Artoo stayed behind, letting out a short string of beeps and whistles.

"On a scale of one to ten of pissed off? I'd say about a hundred."

The next string of beeps and whistles dropped an octave.

"I'll be fine. It's not me he wants to kill."

Artoo made another series of low octave whistles. Ahsoka sighed and patted the droid on the head.

"I know. But even if he forgets that, I won't let him. Now go make sure Jace and Barriss get away," Ahsoka directed.

Artoo nodded and activated his rocket boosters to catch up with Barriss and Jace.

The three were just disappearing over the ridge to a better pickup point when she sensed Vader's presence totally take over her senses.

Ahsoka turned to face him, an unimpressed expression on her face that she wasn't even sure he could make out through the wind, rain, and slowly darkening sky.

"Ahsoka."

Ahsoka knew that tone. It was a warning.

"Vader," she replied.

Vader wasted no time in getting his demand across.

"Where is Barriss Offee?"

* * *

**AN: **My intention was to update this yesterday, but things came up. School things.

Anywho, I really wanted to touch on was how Ahsoka would have been perceived had she not decided to nope out of the Jedi after Barriss confessed to the crime, and how Barriss might have been treated differently because of Ahsoka's botched case. It happens all the time in the real legal and criminal world. People proved innocent but the stain of a criminal accusation having a longlasting impact. The public thinking that just by virtue of being accused, you're guilty. Then there's the fact that Ahsoka and Barriss were friends. There would have been many, even among the Jedi, that thought she'd managed to get away with murder. The incident plausibly would have followed Ahsoka at least for a few years, if not the rest of her life, even though she'd been exonerated. It's sad in canon that she left, but all things considered, it really was the best choice she could have made. Either that or, as is implied here, she would have stayed and become even more of a maverick Jedi than she already was in the canon.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed. Review please!


	25. Duplicity

**Chapter Twenty-Five: Duplicity**

By many accounts, standards, and tests in various areas, Vader was nothing short of a genius. However, the duplicity of Ahsoka Tano continued to confound him. Loyal yet willing to stand between him and his goals. His ally where it counted in the grand scheme of events yet willing to be his adversary when it suited her. A trait, he grudgingly admitted, that she'd always had and hadn't lost even after renouncing the Jedi and raising his children. If anything, her renouncement and the forging of her own path made that duplicity all the more apparent. Today, she chose to stand against him as an enemy, if ever a reluctant one, in her foolish pursuit of saving the Jedi who remained from his wrath.

If it were any other Jedi, Vader might not be so infuriated.

When she shrugged in answer to his question, he growled, "Then if you will not assist me, stay out of my way."

"Yeah," Ahsoka said, standing her ground as her stance shifted just slightly. Not to fight him, but as not to be surprised if he decided to Force her out his path, Vader surmised. "Not going to be able to do that one, _my lord_."

Vader bristled at her ability to turn a title of honor and respect into a mocking insult adding fuel to the burning fire of the rage he already had towards her.

"Ahsoka," he warned.

"We've had this conversation before. I won't stand by and let you kill the Jedi."

"And you must have forgotten the part where I said you would try, but I would not allow you to get in my way. I thought we would both at least agree on Barriss Offee's destruction."

He'd hit a nerve with that one, the fact given away by her inability to contain the conflict she had over the other former padawan's survival and the history the two had together. While he didn't allow himself to ruminate or think about things from his destroyed former life, Ahsoka was the one exception he allowed himself regarding that rule. A necessity created from their partnership. So he drew on that knowledge; the knowledge of the conflict she experienced after escaping punishment and officially being exonerated for the crime but still guilty in the eyes of many; the knowledge that her increasing recklessness, infamy, and fame during the last year of the war were her way of trying to reprove herself; the knowledge of the anger he'd sensed from her as though it were his own after finding out how carefully the Senate, the military, and the Jedi Council decided Barriss' case. He let those memories stoke his rage and inspire him to do what his former self had been too weak and shackled by Jedi principles to do.

"I won't let you destroy her," she said.

"You would choose to stand against me to protect her?" he spat.

"This isn't about Barriss," Ahsoka said calmly. She continued quickly, "This is about you and me."

"How so?"

"You were right. We are the same," she admitted. "I have the same hate and rage that you do. I've had it for a long time. And it blinded me at one point. I may not have been at the temple cutting the Jedi down, but I was right there on Coruscant and didn't feel all those deaths. I didn't even feel that you had turned to the dark side. I won't let that happen again. We may be the same, but it's because I know we are that I'm not going to let my hate and rage control me. The Jedi might have been wrong, but what you're doing is just as wrong. It's no better than what you're hunting down Barriss for."

"I am nothing like that traitor."

"Aren't you?"

"That's enough talking from you," Vader declared as he lit his lightsaber. He would have to sort out whatever it was that Ahsoka had gotten into her head later. Right now, he had a Jedi to catch. "Get out of my way, Ahsoka, or I will make you."

Somehow, he'd missed that her lightsabers were already in her hand like she'd been expecting that ultimatum. The white blades came to life in her hands. White, as a sign of her neutral alignment. White because she gave her allegiance to neither the Jedi nor the Sith. White, because she forged her own path, even if it meant going against him.

"I figured that out," Ahsoka said, a cocky smile playing on her lips as she shifted her stance once again, twirling one of her sabers into the reverse grip she favored. Then, she leaped into the air, closing the distance between them, and landed in from on him.

They struck at the same time, Ahsoka forced to pull away first knowing that not even she had the power to go against him head-on, instead taking advantage of her speed to dodge his strikes. It was a lesson he'd taught her early on since she'd been so small when he met her, something that she still took advantage of now being that she was still slighter compared to his bulk.

"You delay the inevitable," he said to her as she ducked his blade.

"A delay is all I need."

"That is nonsense. Either you're with me, or you're against me," Vader growled as he continued to draw on his rage.

"I am with you. I've always been with you, even when I shouldn't have. But if you're going to be Emperor, I won't let you continue Palpatine's agenda. That starts with keeping the Jedi away from you."

"To what end. We defeat Palpatine, and then we have to deal with the Jedi who won't stand for another Sith emperor?" Vader asked, using the Force to stay one of Ahsoka's strike.

"You betrayed them."

"They betrayed me first. They betrayed you! And you would give them the chance to do it again."

"I'm giving you another chance, aren't I?"

"I never betrayed you," Vader said, getting the best of her through the Force as her resistance to his Force grip crumpled, and he tossed her backward.

He could be accused of many things. Most of which were true, and that he stopped caring were true a long time ago. Monster? Probably. Killer? Definitely. Ruthless? Cruel? Unforgiving? Certainly so. But a traitor wasn't one of them. His former, weaker self had done everything that the Order and the Republic asked; everything that those around him asked, even when it wasn't the way they wanted him to, even when it wasn't what he wanted. And what had he gotten to show for it except their constant reprimand and mistrust? And then because they didn't trust him, because somehow Ahsoka's reputation had been stained by her proximity to him, they'd turned around and betrayed her when there had been no evidence of her betrayal. No. Vader had betrayed no one. He'd just turned around and given everyone what they had given him. And he planned to be as unforgiving to everyone else as they had been to him.

"I am avenging us," Vader said as he made his way to her while she staggered to her feet. "I am avenging you."

"And I'm telling you that's not what I want. You're not listening. Just like you didn't listen to Padmé."

Either her precognition had gotten better, or she fully expected the vicious strike he made at her because her sabers were up to block before he was even halfway to completion with the strike. Despite his reaction to her words and now being on the defense, Ahsoka kept going.

"This is the difference between us. I hate them. I'm as angry at them as you are. But yours is selfish. If it weren't, you'd listen to me. I won't give them the power of making me like them. And I won't give them that kind of power over you. So keep hating Vader. Keep raging. But I'm going to be there fighting you to direct it toward something good every step of the way. If I'm going to help you become emperor, I won't let you be a slave to Palpatine's legacy," Ahsoka declared.

"You will certainly try," Vader said, beating down Ahsoka's defenses finally. He lifted her off the ground by the throat and then threw against the ship she and her crew had abandoned. She crumpled to the ground, but she would live. She'd survived worse.

He created a Force shield around himself to help him fight through the wind and rain that had worsened since the beginning of his confrontation with Ahsoka. He'd just made it over the ridge when the Force told him to turn around.

Ahsoka had gotten up, managed to sprint across the rocky terrain, and lunged at him.

Rather than blocking his saber with hers, she grabbed his wrist, knocking them both off-balance, causing them to fall down the other side of the ridge. When they landed, he tossed her off and away, red blade ignited. Always rising to the challenge, even one they both knew she wouldn't win, she stood with her two white ones. Vader resigned himself to having to use the Force to knock her out and later taking her with him once he dealt with the Jedi she fought so hard to protect. Large red blaster bolts over coming out of the dark grey clouds toward him forced Vader to have to leap back and deflect the attack instead.

"Well," Ahsoka managed through ragged breaths. "Look like my ride's here."

"Ahsoka," Vader heard a voice, likely one of her many special agents, shout.

With some effort judging by how she shakily stabilized herself, Ahsoka leaped into the air and onto the ramp of the ship that appeared in the clouds. Vader reached out to try to pull the ship towards him, but Ahsoka was ready for that too, pushing back against him with the Force and holding him off long enough to allow the ship to escape the reach of his pull and eventually, out the atmosphere.

Vader tightened his fist as he sensed Ahsoka's presence leave the atmosphere, taking Barriss Offee with her. She claimed that his hate and anger blinded him, but her optimism blinded her to the reality that, one, even if he'd wanted to stop his pursuit of the Jedi, he couldn't do that in a way that wouldn't make Sidious suspicious, and, two, even if he did stop his pursuit to end the Jedi, they wouldn't stop their pursuit to end him. That was just the order of things when it came to the Sith and the Jedi. The Sith were ambitious and sought power. The Jedi stood in their way because of their misinformed notion that they had some kind of monopoly of the Force, seeking the same power and influence that they criticized the Sith for. If he allowed the Jedi to live, they'd only continue to cause chaos in his empire.

He stormed back through his ship, using the Force to protect him from the elements as he pondered exactly how he was going to rectify this situation. There was no threat he could use against Ahsoka to make her stop. He could raise his lightsaber against her all day, and she'd raise hers right back. She could take a beating and would fight him to the death if she needed to, but he just wanted her out of his way in this matter. Not dead. So continued physical altercations were out.

He had to outsmart her. Not outsmart her in finding the Jedi, but somehow use her insistence on helping the Jedi to suit his purposes. Make her think she'd gotten her way when really, she'd played right into his hand.

Vader paused, walking as an idea came to mind.

No doubt, Ahsoka was just as fed up with fighting him over the fate of the Jedi as he was, and he was certain that once she was in a secure place, she'd be comm'ing him to let him know of her displeasure about this outing. And it was when she was like this that she stopped being so stubborn and began to try to initiate reasoning with him to go halfway. Leaving the Jedi Order. Luke and Leia. Destroying Palpatine.

He wasn't oblivious. He knew that Ahsoka had figured out how to appeal to his worse nature to get her way. When she did this time, he'd make sure to appeal to her weaknesses, her fears, and the unpleasant truths she didn't like to admit to herself. Then she'd inadvertently help him in his goal.

He smirked in satisfaction with himself. Now all there was to do was wait.

* * *

Barriss and Jace made a huge fuss over Ahsoka when the ramp to the ship closed, and she collapsed on the floor. The captain of the ship and the leader of the rebel cell that was their pickup, a young zabarak woman, let them know that she was taking them to their base where Ahsoka could get medical help.

"I'm fine," Ahsoka insisted. "Just need a little sleep."

"Are you kidding?" Jace asked.

"He's right. I think you have a broken rib," Barriss said gently from where she was gently pressing Ahsoka's sides.

"And probably a lot more considering you fought Vader!"

The zabarak captain came all the way out from the cockpit, leaving the piloting to her co-pilot and said, "You fought Vader?"

"No big deal."

"No big deal! Fighting Vader is like having your death certificate signed. You've seen the reports. You know how many Jedi have tried to fight him and lost. Jedi that we couldn't save," Jace said and then turned to the zabarak woman. "Your base is good. Anywhere that will take us with a functioning medical bay is good."

Ahsoka didn't have the energy to fight that. And maybe they had a point about needing medical attention because she remembered closing her eyes to try to calm herself, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up in a private medical room.

"Don't even think about getting up. The medical bay here is passable, but they didn't have access to a full bacta tank. So it's going to take you a couple of days longer to heal even with the max strength bacta patches we've been applying," Barriss' voice said.

Ahsoka looked over to where the woman was sorting something in the corner of the room.

"I wasn't thinking about getting up."

Ahsoka heard the smile in the woman's voice as she said, "Maybe. But your Jedi lineage was notorious for their disdain of med bays. And the Jedi healers and field medics hated having to deal with you all as much as you all hated being there."

That was true, Ahsoka thought. Then she gasped and asked, "How long has it been since Bacrana?"

"Three standard rotations."

Ahsoka let out a sigh of relief. Good. She still had time to contact Breha or Diya if she needed to, if not be back on Alderaan on the date she'd promised the twins.

"You should be all set to go in one more rotation or two. I'll be leaving before that," Barriss added. "I just wanted to make sure you'd be alright."

"What changed, Barriss?" Ahsoka asked, as usual, the words tumbling from her mouth before she could contemplate not saying them. "Last time I saw you, you looked ready to burn the Republic and the Jedi Order down. Honestly, I would have been less shocked if you'd become one of the Emperor's inquisitors. But now… now I don't sense any of that in you. So what changed?"

Ahsoka sensed the older woman's surprise at the question but wasn't going to give her any clues to her curiosity now.

Once she got over herself, Barriss looked down, avoiding Ahsoka's gaze as she said, "Nothing, if I'm honest. I still think the Jedi shouldn't have fought in the war, and the Republic did fall but… once I got some space from all the fighting and all the politics, I was able to clear my head and realize what I'd done. I'd accomplished nothing with the bombing. With framing you. Maybe if I had done something different, they would have listened. I know you don't owe me your forgiveness, but I meant it when I said I was sorry. I know I can't take any of it back but I am sorry."

Part of Ahsoka, the part that was still angry that her friend had turned on her, wanted to tell her what she could do with her apologies. But that would be letting her hate and anger control her rather than her controlling it. That would make her fall victim to what Barriss had. To what Vader had. Because that's what they all were in this. Victims, pawns in a larger game where Palpatine had owned the board, and no one had seen what he was doing until it was too late. Even without that, how many times had she wished she'd had the time to whisk Anakin away somewhere with Padmé and Obi-wan where they could all take a step back and clear their heads and think through everything while not in the thick of having to make life or death decisions? How close had she been to snapping like Vader and Barriss had? What would she have done if she hadn't had Luke and Leia to look out for that first year before she saw through the cloud of hate and rage and glimpsed the truth?

Finally, Ahsoka said, "Well, turns out you weren't wrong. The Republic fell. The Jedi were an army unwittingly fighting for the dark side. And no matter what you did, they wouldn't have listened. But I'm listening to you. And if you still want to do something about it, I'm sure I can find you something to do in this rebellion."

Barriss' eyes widened in surprise. "But you said the rebellion would have nothing to do with me."

"I did," Ahsoka said with a shrug. "I changed my mind."

"But—"

"Are you really going to argue with me? You really want me to change my mind again?"

Ahsoka hoped it came across as the tease that she'd meant it to be because, truthfully, she was still debating the gesture. She trusted Barriss even less than she'd trusted Vader when he came back into her life almost three years ago.

At least Vader was fairly predictable. In some twisted way, she could understand how, to him, his actions weren't a betrayal. How he was just trying to protect everyone he cared for without regard for the fact that those same people would rather die before seeing him lose himself like he had. Protecting people he cared for, his inability to let go, that was a fairly obvious weakness that Ahsoka could make sense of. She could find a way to work that out with Vader.

But despite understanding that Barriss was just as much a victim, Ahsoka saw no rhyme and reason to what made the woman tick. And maybe that was because all anyone had known was Barriss, the ideal, by-the-book padawan, and not the real Barriss. Whoever Barriss really was, it didn't matter to Ahsoka now and she had no interest in figuring it out. It just meant that Ahsoka couldn't predict Barriss, and she might potentially be a bigger liability than Vader.

"Don't make me general or a commander. I support your cause, but I can't be on the battlefield again," Barriss stated. It wasn't a demand, but it wasn't a request either.

Ahsoka understood the sentiment. If it weren't for the fact that her and Vader's plan depended partly on her being in a high enough position of influence and control, Ahsoka didn't think she'd have taken up the role of general again either.

"What do you want to do then?"

"You know I used to really believe what the Jedi represented. Before the war. Not harbingers of war but actual peacekeepers."

"So a diplomat then? Or some kind of negotiator? Sort of?" Ahsoka said, already thinking of the positions she could put the woman in. "You would be helpful in recruitment, maybe."

The diplomatic side was something the rebellion was sorely lacking. She wasn't an orator like Padmé had been, and she lacked the tact and finesse with words that Obi-wan had. How many planets and senators had she spoken with over the years that she hadn't been able to push from sympathy with her cause to outright joining because Ahsoka didn't have the delicacy to inspire those already in power.

"We'll talk about it when your ribs and leg are healed," Barriss pointed out.

"My leg?" Ahsoka asked.

"Fracture," Barriss said as she began to head out the room.

Before she left, though, Ahsoka called, "Barriss."

"Yes."

Ahsoka shifted enough to look her former friend in the eye.

"I'm giving you this second chance against my personal instincts because I think we were all used. But if you ever betray me again, you won't have to worry about Vader catching up with you. There will be no place in the universe that you'd be able to hide from me," Ahsoka warned.

Barriss only smiled in response and said, "Somehow, in all these years, you managed to raise a rebellion and keep it hidden from the Empire. I don't doubt you'd keep your promise on that."

When she left, Ahsoka expanded her senses and waited until Barriss was a good distance away, along with anyone else on this remote base, to summon her things with the Force from where they were sitting in the corner. From a compartment on her belt, she took out a hidden comm, tapped the call button, and waited for Vader to pick up. He didn't on the first call. Or the second. Or the third.

She resolved that if he didn't pick up after the fourth attempt, she'd leave him a scathing message. But he picked up, sans the suit. She could feel rage at her permeating even through the comm. Or maybe it wasn't the comm. Maybe it was seeping through their mental bond. She'd have to check it later.

"You kriffing bastard," Ahsoka snapped before he could say anything. "You broke my rib. And fractured my leg. And choked me. And shot down my ship knowing I was on it."

Vader huffed, a dark scowl on his face as he said, _"I didn't choke you. I picked you up by the throat and moved you out my way. Regardless, you've experienced and survived far worse, and I taught you how to safely crash land a ship. If you had just stayed out my way, none of that would have happened!"_

"I guess now is a bad time to mention that I recruited Barriss for the rebellion, huh?"

Ahsoka felt his anger and the dark side flare so sharply and distinctly that she wondered if anyone on the base felt it or if it were just her.

"_It was bad enough that you're saving Jedi. But you recruited her? Of all people?"_

"I can deal with Barriss. But we've got to come to some kind of agreement about the Jedi."

"_The agreement is that I kill them." _Before Ahsoka could protest that, Vader continued, _"Do you honestly think they'll just allow you to bring another Sith emperor to power? They'll declare you corrupt. They'll turn on you and then they'll turn on me. And then try to take Luke and Leia from us both."_

"You don't know that."

"_I do know. We both know. Jedi don't negotiate with the Sith."_

Ahsoka could waste time trying to convince him otherwise, but he'd sense her uncertainty. He was right. She was sure Obi-wan had been sent to kill Vader on Mustafar. And even though there had been questions surrounding Dooku's death, the Jedi hadn't seen his demise as any loss. They'd gone in, lightsabers blazing, to kill Sidious without a plan. If tomorrow Vader rose as emperor, and it came out that she helped him, the Jedi might try to kill her. They'd definitely try to kill Vader. And then they'd try to spirit Luke and Leia away to "safety" as not to allow Ahsoka and Vader to continue corrupting them. But Vader wasn't going to be emperor tomorrow. She had time to change the Jedi's minds, and she had time to change Vader's. She had time to get him to see past his fear and hatred. And the best way to start that was to appeal to it.

"You're right. They don't negotiate with Sith usually. But we have to give the Jedi that remain a chance to do something different," Ahsoka explained. "I won't stop you from hunting them. It would be suspicious to the Emperor if you stopped. But you don't stop me from giving them sanctuary. Give me some kind of heads up so I can get to them. And when you become emperor, if they refuse to cooperate, if they prove you right… well, at least I'll have them all in one place for you."

At those words, she felt his darkness in him come to heel.

"_You're just delaying the inevitable."_

"Maybe. Or maybe I'm right. Even if I'm wrong, won't it at least be worth seeing the looks on their faces when they find out that they helped bring yet another Sith emperor to power?" Ahsoka asked with a shrug.

She knew the comment would appeal to Vader's dark humor. And he knew she knew that because she could see the corner of his lips twitch as he tried to hide his smirk.

"_Fine. I agree to your terms."_

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes. Something told her this had been too easy. Something told her that Vader had planned this conversation. Something told her that she'd been played like an expert sabaac player played the other players around the sabaac table. The all too pleasant tone with which he said his next sentence gave him away.

"_Wishing you a speedy recovery, Ahsoka. My destroyer is scheduled for mandatory maintenance soon. I'll send you the dates and the coordinates within the week so you can bring the twins."_

"Vader," she exclaimed, but the comm winked out, signaling he'd disconnected.

She huffed and leaned back in her bed with her arms crossed, feeling like she was his padawan all over again and that he'd somehow managed to one-up her when she'd thought she had the upper hand. And just like back then, she couldn't fight the smile that came to her lips at a game well played, even though she'd lost. Not quite lost. She'd prefer if Vader let go of his vendetta against the Jedi all together, but it was a start.

Ahsoka would be sure to beat Vader next time.

**End of Part Three**

* * *

**AN: **So there's a lot revealed here. Most importantly, we get a lot of insight into stuff going on in Vader's head. Something that's always intrigued me is that though Vader hates himself for messing up at the end of RotS, I never got the sense that he thought he betrayed anyone. I really think he thought that he did everything for everyone and he just wanted everyone to be with and trust him one time but everyone else in his life had a strong enough sense of self to not go along with it. And I've read and studied a lot of media with Vader. We get a lot more of him in the next part of the story because the next part pretty much belongs to him.

The next chapter is an interlude, one of many interludes from the perspective of people other than Vader and Ahsoka and their thoughts on this whole mess, particularly Vader's and Ahsoka's ever-perplexing relationship. I think you'll enjoy the outsider perspective. I enjoyed writing it.

Hope you enjoyed. Review please! I read them all, even when I don't get the chance to reply. Also, thank you for all the favorites and follows. I really did not expect as warm a welcome as I got when I returned to this fandom and this pairing. It continues to motivate me.


	26. Breha's Interlude

**Chapter Twenty-Six: Breha's Interlude**

Many rebellion agents passed through the Alderaanian palace, none of them ever staying long. But there was something that struck Breha Organa about Ahsoka Tano. Maybe it was seeing how young she was, having already fought in a war that immediately cast her aside and blamed her Order for the fallout when it was convenient. More likely, it was seeing the young woman be so gentle and caring with her dead friends' children, taking on the role of motherhood when she hadn't been expecting to. So against her better judgment, risking her plausible deniability about the rebellion, Breha offered the former Jedi and her children a place in the House of Organa. Luke and Leia were officially wards of the royal family. Ahsoka's place wasn't so official, but Breha made it clear that the Alderaanian palace was also her home.

Bail hadn't liked the idea. Not of taking in the twins but having the constant presence of a Jedi living in the palace. But Breha would not hear his reason. Ahsoka fought a war as a child, had been accused of treason, had her name cleared and fought for the Republic again, had been accused of treason along with all the other Jedi, and was now willing to go to war again for the galaxy. The least she could do was give her safe place to settle with her children.

What Breha hadn't expected was for them to become so close. It was only natural that they would, Breha supposed. Luke and Leia were only a little over a year older than Winter, and the three children spent a significant amount of time with each other. Inevitably when Ahsoka was home, the Queen spent time with her and grew fond of the girl's quick wit and teasing nature.

When they both had nothing they needed to do (or even sometimes when they did), Breha would ask her handmaidens to take care of the children for a few hours and grab a few bottles of wine, and they'd watch supernatural romance holoflicks from Breha's youth. They were sucky and cheesy, but when Breha needed to not think about her responsibilities, they made her feel like the pre-teen who hadn't had to shoulder the burden of being queen. From back when she had the privilege to finish her schooling and invite companions—companions who had long moved on to take up their own lives and duties—without a care in the world.

"These movies are so bad," Ahsoka said good-naturedly once as she laughed at the movie.

"I know that, but I will hear no blasphemy against this film. You have your anime; I can have my supernatural romances."

"Hey! My anime is high-class art, and you know it."

"Some of it, maybe. But some of them are as sucky and hit the right spot of childhood nostalgia as my movies."

"I'm just going to agree to disagree with you, my friend." Then she added, "Though Skyguy probably would have agreed with you."

Breha frowned a little in confusion as Ahsoka poured more of the wine.

"Skyguy?"

Ahsoka's eyes widened just a little before she recovered her composure and said, "That's what I used to call my master."

Ahsoka had changed the subject after that. For all that the woman was extremly open and honest about her feelings and opinions, Ahsoka was particularly tight-lipped about anything to do with before the Empire. The war. The Jedi. She talked about Padmé sometimes. But there was no topic that she avoided talking about more than she avoided talking about Anakin Skywalker, not even so much as breathe his name.

Breha didn't know much about the Jedi. No one did. But she did know that master and padawan pairs tended to form close bonds, despite their code of non-attachment. Ahsoka explained the attachment rule to Breha once, right after the togruta woman informed her that she'd renounced the Jedi. She'd given no reason for casting off the name but had offhandedly stated that she probably couldn't call herself that with two younglings calling her mama anyway. The comment prompted Breha to ask what she meant, and she'd explained the Jedi's code and the prohibition of attachments and the reasons behind them. Breha still didn't fully understand. Their code banning attachments seemed like the equivalent of banning planetary alliances and treaties because sometimes such alliances led to war. But she hadn't wanted to seem critical of the dead Order.

Even still, the teacher-student bonds were supposed to be very purposeful. Only so far as to be able to groom and raise the student into a full-fledged Jedi before such bonds were supposed to be broken. Considering what she'd heard of the pair from Bail, who the girl's master had been, and that she was raising his children, Ahsoka and her Jedi master had been closer than most. Probably very similar in personality too; also based on what Bail had told her.

"_I haven't seen the kind of single-minded determination Ahsoka has since I saw it in her master,"_ Bail had once commented.

Maybe that was a good thing for the rebellion, but even from a distance, Breha saw what the war had done to Anakin Skywalker. He'd been too young. So was Ahsoka. And every time the girl took a new mission, each one more dangerous than the last as her rebellion network grew, Breha pleaded with Mother Alderaan to watch over Ahsoka even though she wasn't one of Alderaan's daughters.

Luke and Leia didn't deserve to lose another parent.

So when Ahsoka returned from an encounter with Darth Vader, despite the fact that doing so would risk Breha's plausible deniability, Breha was waiting when the girl's ship landed in a secret hanger of the palace. It was late in the night on Alderaan, so Breha was dressed in a casual silk kaftan with her dark hair sweeping down her back rather than pulled up into some elaborate style. Normally, she'd never walk out of the living areas of the palace so underdressed, but for her friend, Breha would make the exception.

Ahsoka barely stepped off the ramp when Breha stepped forward and hugged her tightly, forget that the girl was uncomfortable with prolonged physical contact for the most part.

"I'm fine, Breha, but I won't be I you keep hugging me so tight. My ribs are still healing," the woman teased.

"How dare you joke about something like this right now? You fought Darth Vader. He could have killed you," Breha said, stepping backward.

"He didn't, though. I'm fine," Ahsoka said with a shrug.

Breha frowned as she took the younger woman in. She looked worn out and strangely annoyed, but not particularly concerned about her encounter with Darth Vader. Or at least that's what it seemed. For all that Ahsoka was generally honest with her thoughts and opinions, it was hard to get a reading on how she was truly feeling. And not for the first time did Breha get the feeling that even though the girl had renounced the Jedi way, she still fell back on the old teachings to hide more secrets than the unspoken ones that Breha already knew about.

"Come on," Breha said, hooking her arm into one of Ahsoka's.

"I've got to brief my agents about what's going on."

"Your agents can wait," Breha determined firmly.

Ahsoka gave Breha a patient look before sighing. "I think it's probably in my best interest not to argue with you."

Ahsoka was being kind. If she really wanted to argue and go brief her agents, she'd do it regardless of Breha's insistence. Her friend wanted the out Breha was giving her.

Breha led Ahsoka through the dimly lit palace, using secret halls and corridors that she'd memorized as a child to lead Ahsoka to her personal chambers. Not the one she shared with Bail when he was on-planet, but the one from when she was only Alderaan's princess. She'd come here many days not too long ago and cried because of yet another miscarriage. Feeling completely alone and not wanting to burden the friends and childhood companions who moved on with their own families. Feeling a little jealous of them and then feeling bad because of how grateful she should be for the privilege, money, and status she had instead of wallowing in her sorrow.

As soon as Breha had caught a glimpse of the sorrowful look in Ahsoka's eyes when she first arrived here years ago, she'd decided she would share this place with her.

Breha barely closed the door by the time Ahsoka made her way to the wine cabinet in the corner of the room and pulled out her and Breha's favorite wine.

"You're not on any painkillers, are you?" Breha asked.

"Nah," Ahsoka said as she popped the bottle open and poured a glass for Breha and handed it to her.

Breha took it and watched the younger woman poured herself a glass, wondering how she could be so calm after surviving an encounter with Darth Vader. Encounters with him were rare and usually deadly. Once Darth Vader had a person in his sights, he didn't rest until he found them. The only reason anyone had any intel on the man at all was because of the rumors that managed to spread from the Imperial Army and through to the civilian population. They were more ghost stories than anything. A lot of misinformation. If Bail had not seen the terrifying man himself on Coruscant and standing at the emperor's side, if Ahsoka hadn't told them about him, Breha would question whether he was real.

"When we heard about you and Vader, we waited for the Empire to issue a bounty on you," Breha said as they curled up on the soft sofa together. "They didn't."

"Good thing," Ahsoka replied. "Would be harder to maneuver if there was a bounty on my head. That said, there is some honor among thieves and most of the ones who would be a problem owe me a favor or three."

Breha usually found Ahsoka's ability to find humor in everything endearing, but not today. Not when she was sure that the emperor's top enforcer now had her in his sights.

"How can you joke about such a thing?" Breha demanded. "Don't you know it's worse that there hasn't been a bounty. It means that you have his attention. It means that he wants to deal with you personally. And you know what happens when Vader decides to hunt someone down."

"You don't have to remind me. I've been trying to keep Jedi out his grasp for years now."

"Then why aren't you worried. Why are you so sure he won't come after you?"

"What makes you think I'm sure about that?"

"Because if you thought he was trying to track you down, you wouldn't have come here and risked leading him to Luke and Leia."

Ahsoka didn't answer, her face a carefully blank mask. She always wore a blank mask, reacting coolly, calmly, and rationally to most news. Grim, when she needed to be. But that was in public. Ahsoka didn't wear that mask in private. Not with Breha about most things. Certainly not when it came to the twins. Even if she didn't want to talk about it, Ahsoka usually showed when something was bothering her.

"Ahsoka, what aren't you telling me?"

"There are a lot of things I don't tell you, Breha. Just like there are a lot of things you don't tell me."

"What aren't you telling me about Darth Vader?"

Ahsoka took a long gulp of her wine, cleverly hiding whatever expression it was that she hadn't been able to keep herself from making. When she brought the glass back down again, the mask was gone. Breha knew that look. A look that was somehow angry, sad, and longing at the same time. A look Breha knew was reserved only for Anakin Skywalker. Breha assumed Vader killed him like he had the other Jedi, maybe eve to give Ahsoka and Padmé a chance to escape. It would explain why, though Ahsoka never admitted to it, she'd been present when Padmé gave birth and had the children with her. But that didn't explain why she wasn't worried about Vader. Nor would it explain why the look she normally only made when Anakin Skywalker was mentioned crossed her face when Darth Vader was mentioned. Especially that longing. Why would she...

"You know Vader," Breha stated. Then she added, "You know who Vader is. You knew him before he was Vader. And he knows you. He's not putting a bounty on your head because he doesn't want anyone to catch you."

It made sense, and it didn't. If anything, Ahsoka knowing who Vader was before was more of a reason for him to come after her. Part of the mystery around Vader, part of what made him so terrifying, was that no one knew _what_ he was. Knowing Vader was just a man might give people more incentive to join the rebellion. Because a man or a woman could be defeated, Force powers or not.

"You're jumping to a lot of conclusions today."

A non-answer. Neither a denial nor an admission. With Ahsoka, it could mean either one.

"Ahsoka, I swear to Mother Alderaan herself—"

Ahsoka held up her hand, cutting Breha off.

"I'm not going to insult your intelligence by lying to you, Breha. Truthfully, I've wanted to tell you for a while. It's just… it's dangerous. But it might be more dangerous for you not to know."

Breha frowned, not sure if there was a way to prepare for what Ahsoka was getting ready to reveal to her.

"You can't tell anyone. Just telling you is a risk, but I trust you. And lies and secrets between people who were supposed to trust each other are what got us into this mess."

"Ahsoka," Breha breathed.

"You have to promise," Ahsoka said firmly. "Promise on Mother Alderaan."

Ahsoka wouldn't ask Breha to make such a vow if it wasn't serious, so she took the last gulp of her wine, set it to the side, and said, "I promise. I promise on Mother Alderaan."

Ahsoka inhaled and exhaled deeply before she said, "You're right. I do know Vader. I knew him before the end of the Clone Wars. Before he was Vader. He was a good friend."

"Who was he before he was Vader?"

Ahsoka stayed silent, and Breha feared the answer. A good friend. Ahsoka didn't have many people she considered good friends before the end of the Clone Wars. Especially among the Jedi. Breha knew that from the sparingly few times Ahsoka did talk about them. Breha was even sure the reason for her renouncement of the faith had something to do with how they'd cast her out when she'd been framed and whatever happened between them taking her back and their destruction.

Unless she was good friends with a powerful Force user outside the Jedi, that left a very short list of who Darth Vader could be.

Then she remembered that look earlier. The look Ahsoka only made when she was thinking about her Jedi master.

Kriff.

"Ahsoka," Breha whispered, despite knowing this was probably the most secure place in the palace. Breha made it that way. "Who was Darth Vader?"

"I think you already know."

Lifelong lessons of class and dignity about the words a queen should utter flew from Breha's mind as she yelled, "What the kriffing kriff?"

"Breha."

"Don't you dare try to placate me like you're talking to one of your children, Ahsoka Tano," Breha snapped loudly. "You just told me… You want me to believe…"

But it made sense. A terrifying amount of it. Her refusal to even utter Anakin Skywalker's name. The nonchalant manner she reacted to Vader not having a bounty on her. How she'd just managed to escape Vader's clutches twice over. Once when she'd fled Sheba, and again a few days ago.

"He's the twins' father." Breha didn't need her confirmation. "Does he know?"

Ahsoka nodded. "Alderaan's in no more danger because of that fact. It's actually in a lot less."

"He knows they're here."

"He strongly suspects."

"Kriff," Breha muttered. "I'm way too sober for this conversation."

Ahsoka used the Force to levitate the bottle to her hand and poured more into Breha's glass when she held it out.

"Wait… does he know about the rebellion?"

"He knows that I lead it. He gives me tips sometimes."

So he was Ahsoka's high ranking informant.

"Wait. So who did you really fight a few days ago?"

"Vader."

"But… was it real."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes and said wryly, "Yeah. It was real. We have different ideas about the place the Jedi have in the galaxy."

To Breha's growing horror, Ahsoka laughed a little. Like her fight with Vader had been some run of the mill petty disagreement.

"That's not funny. He tried to kill you."

"He wasn't trying to kill me."

"He fought you. He broke your ribs and fractured your leg."

"And grabbed me by the neck," Ahsoka added. "Only because I got in his way. Nothing some strong bacta didn't fix. And trust, he's got his fair share of injuries too." Ahsoka shrugged. "We'll argue about it a little the next time I take the twins to see him, and then it'll be water under the bridge."

"You let him be around the twins!"

"He won't hurt them."

"How can you know that? If he's willing to hurt you, knowing you're their mother, how do you know he won't hurt them when they start getting older and begin disagreeing with him. If they decide to fight back against him."

Ahsoka didn't immediately answer that. Instead, she looked down and studied her empty wine glass. Finally, after agonizing seconds that felt like minutes to Breha, Ahsoka looked up at Breha with that steel in her eyes that Bail said reminded him of Anakin Skywalker. Of the man Ahsoka had just admitted was Darth Vader and who could have killed her a few days ago.

"He won't," Ahsoka assured.

"Who are you trying to convince? Me or yourself?"

"I'm not trying to convince anyone. It's the truth."

"Are you listening to yourself? Do you realize what you just told me?"

Ahsoka's gaze softened. She took Breha's wine glass and set it aside with her own, before curling up in the space next to Breha, scooting so close there was no space between them.

"I know how all this sounds. I know Vader is a dangerous man, and I have no illusions who and what I'm dealing with. But it's a lot more complicated than it seems, and there are powers involved beyond your comprehension."

The Force, Breha guessed.

Ahsoka continued, "I didn't tell you this to worry you. I told you this because you're my friend, and I don't want to keep secrets from you. But you're going to have to trust me on this. He's not going to kill me, and he's not going to hurt the twins."

Breha was very aware that Ahsoka wasn't assuring her that Vader wouldn't hurt Ahsoka too. But she supposed when you were on different sides (Maybe? Vader was her informant after all), them getting into physical fights were an occupational hazard.

Finally, Breha replied softly, "Until he does."

"He's not going to," Ahsoka assured again. "But if I think he is, you'll be the first to know." Then she smiled and said, "Now. Sucky teenage romance holomovies that hit just the right spot of childhood nostalgia."

Breha wanted to argue with her further, but she knew Ahsoka would say no more no matter how much she tried by the abrupt change of subject. If Breha pushed too hard, Ahsoka would just get irritated and leave.

Still, Breha couldn't help but continue to wonder what the hell was going on between Ahsoka and Darth Vader that had inspired Ahsoka with so much certainty in and loyalty to the terrifying enforcer.

* * *

**AN: **There are clearly going to be a lot of varying opinions on Ahsoka's and Vader's relationship. But I think the distance gives different perspectives. Breha is very clearly worried that this is a type of abusive relationship. And Ahsoka's and Vader's relationship absolutely has the hallmarks of an abusive and toxic relationship on both ends. Vader for sure (the I hurt you because of something you did is a classic abuse tactic), but Ahsoka's demonstrated that she can be just as cruel with words and egg him on when she wants to. I purposely write their relationship that way. I know what it looks like, and I'm under no illusions that Ahsoka and Vader have a healthy relationship, and I want to make sure that's obvious.

Anywho, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed. Review please!


	27. Part Four: Chapter Twenty-Seven: Padmé

**Part Four**

**Chapter Twenty-Seven: Padmé**

Vader wasn't entirely sure how he'd ended up on opposite ends of a playing table with Ahsoka in his Mustafar Fortress playing some unimportant strategy hologame. One moment, he'd offered to help Luke against Leia. Then Ahsoka proclaimed that wasn't fair and took Leia's side for what Leia had declared to be a girls versus boys match. The next moment, Luke and Leia had lost interest in playing the game and were more interested in watching Vader and Ahsoka play against each other. Leia had even run to her room to get her datapad and looked up creative ways to make the already simple game more challenging.

"You can't do that," Ahsoka said idly as he started to make his next move.

"The rules say I can," Vader replied, not taking his eyes off the board.

"The standard play rules do, but we're playing by the altered challenge rules," Ahsoka reminded.

In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to let Luke and Leia encourage his and Ahsoka's competitive rivalry. But at the very least, he didn't have to sense her anxiety about bringing the twins to his newly constructed Mustafar Fortress.

She'd made it very clear that she didn't like the idea of the twins spending time on a planet that was so strong in the dark side of the Force, let alone the planet's dark side locus where his fortress was built.

Vader certainly didn't care about assuring her concerns when it came to the decisions he made about the safety of his children. He trusted her choices with them, even letting her annoying top special agent have access to them. She would eventually have to learn to trust his. But these visits generally went better when Vader didn't give her a reason to be angry with him. Better to placate her in the beginning rather than to have things explode spectacularly in the end, especially when it came to Luke and Leia. He was learning that sometimes it was best to pick his battles when it came to Ahsoka.

So he'd exposed the old bond he shared with her from the icy depths of darkness that usually shielded it. When he'd reached out with his senses towards her, she didn't reach back to him immediately but didn't falter or retreat from him. When she had reached back, Vader had to resist the urge to retreat from the heat of her light. But she'd had no desire to fight the darkness, nor to extinguish it, and so he had guided her senses to the bright balls of light that were Luke and Leia.

She wasn't wrong in her suspicion that the dark side leaped with glee at the prospect of consuming them. But Vader's power in the dark side was more powerful than that of a non-sentient planet, and he rose against it, establishing his dominance. The two bright presences of light were his, and the dark side backed off as Vader reinforced that dark blanket he'd created to mask Luke's and Leia's presence.

"Well then," she had said thoughtfully, "I suppose the dark side can protect sometimes. In its own way."

Vader couldn't blame her for thinking that way, but there were many hidden aspects of the dark side outside what the Order had permitted their Jedi to know. There were many hidden aspects of it outside what Sidious wanted him to know.

Vader finally cursed at the game, not liking any of the limited number of options left to him when he remembered the altered rule of their game.

"You said a forbidden word, Daddy," Leia said with an unimpressed look that perfectly mimicked the one he was familiar with from Ahsoka.

"It's not forbidden for me," Vader replied.

"How can it be forbidden for me and not you?" Leia asked, tone now mimicking the skeptical one that he'd been frequently on the receiving end of with Ahsoka when she found him being hypocritical back when she was just a padawan. A tone he was still frequently on the receiving end of.

He wondered at it for a moment. How even though both Luke and Leia looked like him and Padmé, they still managed to pick up some of Ahsoka's mannerisms enough that he saw their adopted mother in them too. Would they still have picked up some of her speech patterns and facial expressions if Padmé had still been around to mother them?

Vader decided to stop that entire train of thought. Thinking things like that would take him down a path he didn't have the energy to deal with right now.

"Because I'm hoping that you all will actually grow up to sometimes be polite and decent company, unlike your father," Ahsoka intervened. Then she grinned at the twins and said something to them in her native togruta tongue, characterized by distinct clicking consonants, that made both Luke and Leia giggle.

"What did you say?" Vader asked. When Ahsoka shrugged, he looked at the twins and demanded, "Tell me what she said."

"It was nothing, daddy," Luke said in an all too innocent tone.

Just for that, Vader was now going to make it his business to learn togruti. He was sure it wouldn't take long once he learned the grammar and general phonetic structure, one of the few benefits of spending time on such a diverse population as the one on Tatooine.

"Oh!" Leia suddenly said, her eyes lighting up. "I just remembered. Daddy, was our mother your heart?"

Vader didn't miss how Ahsoka paused with her hand poised just above the piece she was about to move.

"My heart?" Vader asked, crossing his arms and looking at Leia. "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing—just the ramblings of a six-year-old. Silly youngling stuff," Ahsoka said as she moved her piece. "Your turn."

"It's not silly," Leia cried indignantly to Ahsoka before turning back to Vader. "And it's…" She trailed off, brows furrowed in concentration before she turned back to Ahsoka and said, "Mama. You explain it for me. It'll make more sense."

Ahsoka raised an eye marking at the girl who at least had enough shame to blush a little and asked softly, "Can you explain it for me, please?"

Ahsoka kept looking at Leia for a moment before sighing and turning to the game, playing with one of the pieces though it wasn't her turn.

"It's a concept on Shili. There's no direct translation for the word in Basic. I mean, there is. It literally translates to heart. But no Basic word encompasses it all. It's like… maybe the closest thing is life companions or life partners," Ahsoka explained.

"So soulmates?" Vader asked bluntly.

"No. That's different. It's not just someone that's a close friend or a romantic partner. It's someone that's none of that and all of that with a lot more. That person is literally everything to another person. Enemies. Rivals. Lovers. Friends. Companions. Their heart."

Vader still didn't get the concept, and, probably sensing that, Ahsoka groaned.

"It's already an abstract enough concept on Shili. It's even harder to explain outside the language. But it's considered the highest blessing and signifies favor from the universe if you're lucky enough to find that person _and _realize it. It's extremely rare. Rarer than the broader concept of soulmates. And really, you can't know what it means until you experience it. If you experience it. As you can imagine, Shili entertainment and media are obsessed with the idea," Ahsoka added.

"Let me guess. Diya," Vader said with a roll of his eyes.

"Come on. Don't be like that. Diya's a sweetheart."

"You and I clearly have vastly different definitions of that word."

"She's useful to our cause."

"Trust me," Vader muttered as he finally moved a piece. "If I had not already deduced that, I would have killed her moments after we met, even after she showed me your special insignia."

Not only useful for taking down the Emperor, Vader thought to himself. He would also be able to use Diya for his own side project. But that wasn't something he was telling Ahsoka. If she could use her rebellion to also give refuge to the Jedi, Vader could use his Imperial connections for his own purposes and borrow her agent for the task. So long as it didn't interfere with their primary goal.

"Daddy! You wouldn't kill Aunt Diya!" Luke cried in alarm.

"Of course, he wouldn't, Luke. He's just joking," Ahsoka said, giving Vader a warning look because she knew as well as he did that he absolutely would kill the girl if she pushed the boundaries of his patience too far. Useful or not. "If it makes you feel any better, she dislikes you about as much as you dislike her."

"Mama. Daddy. Focus," Leia demanded and then looked at Vader. "So you get it now?"

"Yes," Vader replied.

"So was our mother your heart?" Leia continued.

Vader resisted the urge to scoff as he said, "No. Ahsoka was not nor ever will be my heart."

He looked at Ahsoka, expecting her to good-naturedly agree, but she was pointedly avoiding his gaze by pretending to be engrossed in their game.

"Not Mama," Leia said, annoyance coloring her features, and she looked like Ahsoka to Vader again. "Our _first _mother. Padmé." Then she turned to Ahsoka. "That's what you said her name was. Right, Mama."

"Yes," Ahsoka said softly, still not looking up from the game.

Vader contained the surge of the dark side that rose in him, but barely. As it was, he guessed the temperature still must have dropped because Luke, who hated the cold most, suddenly shivered.

"Alright, you two. Bedtime," Ahsoka said.

"But Daddy hasn't answered my question," Leia argued.

"He'll answer it tomorrow. After you've had a good night's rest," Ahsoka responded in the easy manner she always did when dealing with the twins. "I'll come tuck you in soon, after I clean this up."

Leia and Luke looked at each other and then both rolled their eyes after whatever mental conversation the two had. Then, together, they made their way to their room to get ready for bed.

When they were gone, Ahsoka immediately said, "I'm sorry. I didn't know she planned to ask you that question. If I'd know, I would have—"

"How do they know about Padmè?"

"Because I told them about her."

"It wasn't your secret to tell," Vader snapped at her.

"Secret? Padmé was their mother. It's their right to know about her. I've been telling them about her since they were born."

"You shouldn't have."

"Why not?"

"For once, Ahsoka, don't push me on this. Leave it," Vader said as he stood from the table they'd been competing on.

If there were one way to guarantee Ahsoka would push him on something, telling her not to was the way. So he wasn't surprised when she stood to meet his challenge with her hands on her hips.

"I don't get you. Of all the things we disagree on, I would have thought you wanted me to tell them about her."

"Well, you thought wrong."

"That makes no sense."

Vader didn't care as he began to walk off toward his room. Ahsoka followed him.

"What was I supposed to do? Lie to them? Try to make them believe I'm their first mother like everyone else assumes I am and pretend the fact that they remember her is just their imagination?"

Vader rounded on her then because Luke and Leia shouldn't remember her. Not if…

"How?" he demanded as he let go of some of the restraint he had on his shielding. "You told me she died before she could even hold them."

And may the Force help her if she'd lied to him about that.

"She did," Ahsoka said, not deterred by his tone or the power coming off him. Instead she stood her ground, her own Force potential flaring just slightly in response to the challenge his own offered. "But they remember her in the Force. They know she was there, and they know she's missing. This isn't a secret I'll keep from them. I decided that not long after they were born. And I didn't think it was a secret you'd keep from them either."

"No. But it wasn't something you should have decided to discuss without my express permission," Vader finally snapped.

Ahsoka scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Your express permission? I was telling them about her long before you came into their lives and decided you wanted to be in the running for Father of the Year."

"You're the one that hid them from me."

"Right. Because I was supposed to randomly show up on an Imperial Star Destroyer and request an audience with you when you were almost totally out your mind," Ahsoka said, sounding irritatingly like Obi-wan. "You're barely even around to be their father as it is. It was safer to tell them the truth, so they know why they can't talk about it than to keep it from them and have them say the right thing in ignorance to the wrong person."

"So you say."

"So I know," Ahsoka declared. "Really, Vader. You damn your soul and the entire galaxy for her, and now all of a sudden, you want to act like she never existed."

"That's the point!" he roared, losing all semblance of control as he fully unleashed presence in the dark side.

Ahsoka faltered, stepping back from him until her back was against the wall. He sensed her pain from the assault caused by the full brunt of his Force signature without warning, but he couldn't bring himself to care. It wasn't as if she cared to restrain her sharp tongue before she threw at him the failure to do the very thing he'd turned to the dark side and pledged himself to Sidious for. He was very well aware what people, including her, thought of what he'd done, and how in vain all that he'd done had been. He'd lost Padmé, missed two years of his children's lives, and got to see his children only every few months or more because Sidious would become suspicious if he insisted on too much time off. He certainly didn't need Ahsoka to remind him of that.

He began to head to his room again, and unsurprisingly, Ahsoka pulled herself off the wall to follow.

"Vader. Hey," she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him back towards her so that he was half facing her.

The only reason she'd even managed it was because he hadn't expected her to grab him. Generally, they avoided physical contact with each other. At his glare, she let him go.

"What?"

"Let's try this again," Ahsoka paused, closing her eyes for a moment before letting out a sigh. She opened them again and said, "I wasn't trying to make you feel guilty about what you've done. Sometimes I am, but I wasn't then, though apparently you feel guilty enough without me reminding you."

Vader started to deny it, but then felt a pointed mental poke through their bond, giving him the impression that Ahsoka was trying to tell him not to lie because she already knew. She'd sensed his thoughts already through the same bond she was poking. At that, he drew the darkness back around the mental link to keep it from being used.

He didn't need their link to know that she was losing patience with him.

"I'm not one of your children," he said, entering his room and allowing her to follow him inside. If he tried to keep her out, she would just bother him until he let her in.

"Well, if you stopped acting like one, I wouldn't treat you like one."

"I'm not acting like anything. That's you projecting."

"Whatever. I'm not going to argue that point with you," Ahsoka decided and then said, "But you are being incredibly difficult. I can tell them about my friend and their mother even if you don't want to tell them about your wife. You didn't own Padmé."

"Of course not."

"Sometimes, it doesn't feel like you know that."

In an Empire where most beings tiptoed around Vader, telling him what he wanted to hear or suffering the consequences of it, Ahsoka's blunt honesty was somehow both a breath of fresh air and irritating as hell. A breath of fresh air because he could generally take what she offered him on face value. No trying to ascertain if there was an ulterior motive. No need to weigh her words against something else she'd said in the past to find a lie or inconsistency. No listening for the dead ringers that would betray a possible agent for the Emperor sent to watch him. No need for paranoia. But nonetheless irritating because she always seemed to be able to press just the right button to force emotions long-buried with his former self to surface.

"I do know that. I knew that," Vader finally replied evenly, taking great effort to control his Force power.

The galaxy had taken great pains to remind him of that. Part of his and Padmé's agreement when they got married was that their duty to the galaxy came before their desire for each other. Hence the reason no one knew she was his wife. Hence why she only got to be his wife in the few precious moments they had from prying eyes. Hence why when she died, no one knew she'd left a widower behind.

Ahsoka gave him a look that said she still didn't agree with him, but let it go with her next statement, "Leia's going to ask you again. She won't forget. And even if I had the answers to give, she wants them from you. They hardly get to see you as it is. Do you really wanna spend that time holding back something you don't have to just because of your stubborn refusal?"

He got the feeling that she meant more than just his stubborn refusal to talk about Padmé at all. But also his stubborn refusal to confront that part of the blame for her death lied with him and his own actions. Because he hadn't had the foresight to play the long game against Sidious before. Because he'd let the power of the dark side control him until he'd lashed out at the very things he'd been trying to protect. He retreated more into the cold embrace of the dark side to dim the feelings that those harsh truths began to bring up in him. Feelings unbecoming of a Sith Lord.

"Are you done?" he asked, though they both knew he wasn't giving her an option. The conversation was over as far as Vader was concerned.

"Never," Ahsoka replied but seemed to take the cue from him that he was done talking and left him to brood in peace.

* * *

**AN: **This was the first chapter in a while that I wasn't constantly picking at and nitpicking at. I read through it, ran it through Grammarly and was pretty satisfied with it. Amazingly because I know I started, scrapped, and restarted this chapter three or four times when I originally wrote it weeks ago.

Get ready to have your complete heart's content of Vader and Ahsoka interacting because they're together in every chapter except one for this entire part. And this entire part is twelve chapters. Also, a lot of Vader and Ahsoka, but Vader especially, because completely and utterly oblivious to their emotions.

Hope you enjoyed. Review please! I really appreciate it


	28. Sharing

**Chapter Twenty-Eight: Sharing**

He sensed Luke and Leia trying to sneak up on him in his room, long before they both tried to pounce on him. Therefore, when they did pounce, he used the Force to throw pillows in their way, causing the two to squeal and fall back in surprise. They threw the pillows to the side and crawled on the bed, laying on their stomachs with their heads propped up in their hands by their elbows.

"Do you ever sleep?" Leia asked with a sigh.

"With two little monsters like you running around, never," Vader replied blandly but knowing the twins sensed he was playing with them.

He always had to be careful when around the twins. Ahsoka had been right in her observation that he held back from them. It was tempting to just bask in the warm light of his children's presence, but a luxury he couldn't afford if he wanted to keep them safe. If he told them about Padmé, if he opened up such a wide door to his former self, he might tread paths not as dark in the Force as the one that Sidious expected him to walk. Just opening himself to a path that wasn't as dark might gain his master's notice and expose the twins long before Ahsoka had built up her rebellion to a strong enough point, and he'd gained enough of the fleet's loyalty to challenge Palpatine and win. It was a risk he couldn't allow himself to take, even if that meant more distance from his children than he already had. Even if it meant the furthest he could go in showing them affections was a nudge in the Force here and there. Or not sending them away when they sought him out, even if he was trying to work on his never-ending Imperial duties.

The looming threat of Palpatine was why he never asked Ahsoka where they settled and where she kept them when she was running missions, though Vader had his guess. In addition to talking about "Aunt Diya" (Vader loathed to think how much the girl was corrupting Luke and Leia), they also frequently mentioned Uncle Bail and Aunt Breha. But suspecting was one thing. Knowing was quite another.

"We can never sneak up on Mama either," Luke said with a rueful sigh. Then he frowned and asked, "Are you feeling better this morning, Daddy?"

"Better?" Vader asked.

"You were upset last night."

"Who told you that?"

"No one." Luke then shrugged. "I could just tell."

"_I_ could just tell. I told you," Leia corrected, reminding both Vader and her brother that she was the empath of the two, though that didn't translate to being sympathetic. Luke was the sympathetic one.

"Right," Luke acknowledged with a roll of his eyes, even at this age, learning that sometimes it was better to just not argue with his sister.

"I'm fine," Vader replied.

"So… can you answer my question now?" Leia asked slowly, as though she didn't believe him for a second when he told her he was fine.

"What question?" he asked, deciding to play dumb with her for now.

Leia narrowed her eyes at him and turned her lips into an annoyed scowl. "Was our first mother your heart?"

Leia wasn't going to let it go. Neither of his children were going to let it go. They were too much like him in that respect. They would grow up sticking their nose in places they shouldn't, trying to find out what they sought. If there were any evidence to be found of his and Padmé's relationship, Luke and Leia would eventually go poking around to find it, despite his and Ahsoka's discouragement. That could endanger them more Vader's proximity to Palpatine could because there was no telling what people and protocols the Emperor had in place for the express purpose of catching those who went snooping.

Better that he gave them something to quell that curiosity rather than inadvertently encourage it by his refusal to say anything.

"I don't know if she was my heart," Vader answered because he still didn't grasp the concept of it even with Ahsoka's explanation. "She was my angel."

"Angel?" Luke repeated.

"What's that?" Leia asked.

"The most beautiful creature in the universe."

"Was our first mother really? The most beautiful, I mean?" Leia continued.

"Yes."

"No way," Luke said with a huff. "No one is prettier than Mama," he declared in a way that only a young child enamored with their female parent could be.

"What has Ahsoka told you about your mother?" Vader asked.

The two children held up their fingers and began ticking off things while alternating back and forth to answer Vader's question.

"Mama told us that she and our first mother were friends before we were born," Luke began.

"And that I look like her," Leia continued. "And that she was smart and kind."

"And that she was our mother first. And when she died and couldn't be our mother, she left us to Mama to be our mother."

A gentle, simplistic way of explaining a situation that was a harsh, complicated mess. But Luke and Leia were only nearly six. They didn't yet comprehend the complexities and nuances of life. Hadn't been exposed to harsh and unfair realities that would give them the emotional complexity to be able to know and understand the whole truth. He wondered what they would think when he eventually had to explain his total absence for the first two years of their lives, what they would think when the excuse of having an important job was no longer enough to explain his sporadic presence now. By comparison, giving them simple answers to their questions about Padmé were a mercy. Something he could easily enough give them despite the risk.

"Oh yeah," Luke suddenly exclaimed as something else came to him. "Mama said that she was from Naboo. She showed us pictures. I wish we could go there."

Vader was eventually going to spend the rest of his life apologizing to Luke and Leia for being partly responsible, if not totally responsible, for their mother's death. They might even grow to hate him one day, something he wouldn't blame them for. But now, he could share with them the good things about Padmé and his relationship with her, unmarred by the terrible way he hurt her in the end.

"Well, why don't we go there?" he asked. At his children's confused looks, he continued, "Naboo. Let's go there."

The twins bounced up on the bed in excitement at the prospect of the trip, and then both agreed to tell Ahsoka about it. Predictably, Ahsoka didn't share their enthusiasm.

"Naboo!" she exclaimed to Vader, who had decided to follow the twins when they told her.

It had been a while since Vader did something that surprised her and made her lose her composure. Probably since before the end of the Clone Wars. They disagreed on what to do about the Jedi, but she wasn't surprised by his stance, just irritated by it. She was quick to resort to blunt, biting remarks or outright insults; was very frequently brash and lacked caring to use discretion and tact about harsh truths with him; and generally dealt with him with practiced, longsuffering ease, expecting for him to challenge her or cause some difficulty. But rarely was her reaction to things so unguarded as the surprise and speechlessness he'd rendered her to upon the twins telling her his plans to take them to Naboo.

"Isn't it great, Mama?" Luke asked.

Ahsoka opened and closed her mouth multiple times before finally she set her mouth in a firm line and narrowed her eyes at him, the chevrons of her lekku darkening in anger. Vader tried and failed to hold back a smirk. A visit from the twins and Ahsoka wasn't complete if Ahsoka didn't find a reason to be angry with him. Last time, it had been because he'd unwittingly tricked her into allowing him to eventually eliminate the Jedi. Conditional as that agreement was. But he was sure the Jedi would not disappoint in their reaction to his rise to power. Their elimination was inevitable. And if Ahsoka hadn't had an inkling of that, she wouldn't have been angry at him for deceiving her. Deciding to take Luke and Leia to Naboo promised her angry reaction to be worse. The mere idea of even putting Luke and Leia anywhere near danger promised to ignite her temper.

"Luke. Leia. Wanna give me and your dad the room for a minute?" Ahsoka asked without taking her eyes off Vader.

If they sensed anything amiss, the twins didn't show it or didn't care in their excitement as they went to tell Artoo their exciting news.

No sooner did the door slide closed behind him did Ahsoka exclaim, "What the hell, Vader?"

Vader cocked an eyebrow at her, while Ahsoka took a few seconds to gain some of her composure back, looking like the stern general she was, even sitting up in her bed in a sleep shirt.

"What in the universe are you thinking deciding to take them to Naboo? Of all places!"

Even though he knew very well the risks involved in taking Luke and Leia to Padmé's home planet, Vader decided it would be more fun to aggravate her first. So he shrugged and said, "Why not?"

"Why not?" Ahsoka said in an even tone, though the darkening of her chevrons told him his nonchalant answer had its intended effect. "I can name quite a few reasons. Let me know when you'd like me to stop."

Vader made a gesture with his hand to proceed, though he knew Ahsoka would do so anyway.

"It's Naboo. The Emperor's homeworld. An Imperial stronghold. Even though I know the Naboo hate the Empire, the rebellion can't get any traction with their queen because of how locked down that planet is. The galaxy thinks Padmé died pregnant. I didn't even think that would work when I changed the medical records before I left and mindwiped the medical droids and tricked the living medics. I was sure the Naboo would do their own investigation into her death and conclude otherwise. But they didn't. Why would you take Luke and Leia there and risk someone seeing them and figuring out that Leia looks a lot like a certain dead, former queen whose child was buried with her? Not to mention the Emperor tracks your every move. He's certainly going to get reports of a man in a big black suit walking around Naboo with two children. I could keep going. But I really don't think I need to."

"You're right. About all those things," Vader conceded, "which is why it's safe for me to take them there in the first place. Naboo is the last place Palpatine would think I or anyone in danger from the Empire would go. Padmé wasn't the only brown-haired, dark-eyed woman on Naboo. All her handmaidens and decoys were proof of that. And I'm not anywhere near stupid enough to go Naboo with the twins in the suit."

"You mean you can go to Naboo without it?" Ahsoka asked, tilting her head at him in curiosity. "I mean… you won't pass out because you can't breathe."

Vader decided not to be angry. He supposed there wasn't a much more tactful way to put that.

"I have modified my treatment plan and gotten strong enough to survive without the suit in a normal environment in a limited capacity. As long as I'm not running headlong into battle every day, I'll be fine," he assured.

He determined long ago that if he was going to keep Ahsoka to her end of their conspiracy that he had to keep to his own. Not to mention, he would accept no less than peak physical condition possible from her, so he wouldn't accept anything less from himself. It started with actually looking at the treatment plan that Palpatine initially put him on. He'd always suspected the man was sabotaging his treatment. But Vader hadn't known how much until he finally was able to securely retain a third party medic with no ties to look over the treatment and the designs of the respirator in his suit. In essence, he was being poisoned. The supposed treatment from the Emperor stunted any progress he could have made toward healing. Eventually, if he'd kept taking the treatment, if he hadn't found a reason to care what his treatment was, it feasibly would have started to kill him. Not quickly. The Emperor needed his top enforcer, but certainly enough that Vader would have always been dependent on the man. That Vader would have been easy to get rid of and be replaced with one of his master's many dark side adepts otherwise if Vader got out of hand.

"Modified?" Ahsoka asked.

"A very complex combination of steroids and other medication to promote healing and reduce pain and some engineering modifications of the suit that escape the Emperor's notice," he explained.

"Is that a better option than pulmonodes?"

"Pulmonodes?"

"They're a type of inorganic organ replacement. Breha has them from an accident when she was younger. You can see the glow of Breha's because she didn't want to get them encased in new skin growth," Ahsoka said. "They're more accessible than transplants and cloning tech, but they can't take as much stress. It's why Breha had issues carrying a child to term."

"You're close with Alderaan's queen," Vader commented.

Ahsoka shrugged. "We have a lot in common."

"I don't know if it's a better option than that. I do know that this treatment is only temporary. The team on my case says that eventually, I'll have to have a transplant. Nothing I have to worry about now. Nothing I can worry about. The surgeries and follow up treatment would take months away from the Empire that I can't afford."

"You mean the emperor would notice."

Vader didn't need to confirm that. It hadn't been a question.

"I still don't like this," Ahsoka said, getting them back to the point at hand.

"It'll be fine. Palpatine's on Coruscant. And I haven't given him any reason to believe that I'm anywhere except Mustafar."

"What if he calls you?"

"He won't."

"How do you know that?"

"He won't," Vader replied tightly, failing to completely reign in his anger.

Something Vader constantly had to deal with was the competition and rivalry between him and Sidious' dark side adepts. At least, the competition and rivalry the adepts thought there was. Vader was secure in his place as the Sith apprentice (for now), but the adepts coveted his position and continually tried to undermine him. Sidious encouraged them, and most of the time, the adepts' attempts were little more than an annoying hindrance. But every now and then, they caused Vader a serious problem. Most recently, one phenomenally sabotaged the mission Sidious teamed them on. Vader salvaged the mission, accomplished the objective, and killed the adept, but Sidious still deemed it a failure. Vader silently took the Force lightning punishment, submerging himself in the dark side and keeping himself from doing or saying anything rash by remembering that his subjugation would not be in vain. After the punishment, the Emperor had ordered him to go on a fortnight retreat on Mustafar to renew his power in the dark side and redouble his efforts in keeping Order in the Empire. Palpatine wouldn't bother him before then barring extenuating circumstances. And if they were that bad, one of Vader's many subordinates would notify him first.

Not feeling like dwelling on his anger toward his master, Vader continued, "I'm not questioning your judgment keeping Luke and Leia in the Core, so give me the same courtesy and don't question mine about this. The same logic applies."

Ahsoka neither admitted or denied his guess about where she and the twins settled when they weren't with him.

"I'm not questioning your judgment." Vader raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I am questioning it. But not because I don't trust you with them. But because I don't trust trouble not to find you somehow while they're with you."

"That's… understandable," Vader admitted. "Good thing you'll be with us."

Vader had no illusions that Ahsoka would be left behind while he took the twins to Naboo. Still, she balked at the idea and gave a longsuffering sigh.

"Vader. I can't go to Naboo."

"If I can go to Naboo, you can go to Naboo, Ahsoka."

"No. I can't. I'm not human."

"I never noticed," Vader drawled.

"Are you serious?" Ahsoka asked with her arms crossed

Vader tilted his head at her, causing a genuinely frustrated look to cross the woman's features. One that was more frustrated than if Vader had even been trying to aggravate her again.

"The Empire right now has hundreds of anti-nonhuman policies. Policies strictly enforced on planets with a strong Imperial presence like Naboo. Just being seen there, on a mostly human planet, puts me at risk regardless of if anyone recognizes me. Even the gungans have been forced back into isolation and hiding on Naboo," Ahsoka explained.

"That is a problem," Vader agreed. "Don't worry. The retreat I'm taking the twins to is isolated. No one will ever get the chance to see you."

"That sounds like you plan on keeping me in a prison while you and the twins frolic through the Naboo plains and cities," Ahsoka responded dryly. She stared at him for a moment before saying, "You're really serious about this."

"I wouldn't have said it if I weren't. Besides, you were the one who said I shouldn't hold back so much with them. So I'm not."

Ahsoka was positively incredulous at that.

"I meant you should tell them stories about you and Padmé before bed. Not taking them to Naboo!"

"You're overreacting," Vader said, succeeding in riling her up further.

Ahsoka huffed as she threw the covers off her and got out of bed. Before she disappeared into the fresher, she snapped, "I swear this is some real pre-Empire Anakin Skywalker kriffing insanity, Vader."

The fresher door then slid closed behind her.

Behind him, the door slid open, revealing the twins standing in the doorway looking up at Vader.

"Mama didn't sound happy," Leia stated matter-of-factly.

"She just doesn't want anyone to do anything," Vader said casually.

Leia turned sharply to Luke and said smugly, "See. Even Daddy thinks so."

* * *

**AN: **These are my favorite chapters to write, but I don't have a lot to say about them. So I'll let you all be the judge.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review please!


	29. Naboo

**Chapter Twenty-Nine: Naboo**

Just when Ahsoka thought she had unraveled the mystery that was Vader, he did something that completely stunned her and forced her to reevaluate what she thought of him and how she would deal with him in the future. Their impromptu visit to Naboo was one of those things, something she hadn't been able to talk him out of when she'd calmed down enough from the initial revelation to have a more sound debate with him. He shot her down on every point, using all her points for why going to Naboo was insane and risky to support why going to Naboo wasn't as insane or as risky as she was making it out to be.

At least, Ahsoka thought wryly, he did seem to appreciate the gravity of the consequences if she was proven right. He tolerated her insistent inquiries about how he planned to mitigate the risks; what his escape plan was if something did happen; and her multiple warnings that if this ruined everything, there was nothing in the universe that would protect him from her impaling him with her lightsabers.

"You used to be a lot more adventurous and less cautious than this during the Clone Wars," he said after he seemed to decide to let himself be entertained by her nagging instead of irritated.

"That was before I became a mother," she snapped back at him. "I thought becoming a father would make you less adventurous and more cautious too."

"Stop worrying, Snips," he'd responded blandly and poked her in the forehead just to needle her even further.

She'd wanted to tell him that his Anakin was showing but swallowed the comment. The last thing she should do was take Vader out of whatever unnaturally good mood had possessed him to go on this trip when they were in what could easily become an overt, hostile environment. Then again, the paranoia that came when he was deeply immersed in the dark side might make him change his mind and take them back to Mustafar.

As aggravated with Vader and as unhappy about this entire trip as she was, Ahsoka would not spoil the twins' excitement. She kept her reservations away from them, even as she brought the Force around herself and them to help hide them from notice as they rowed across the lake to a secluded retreat on Naboo. The most she'd been able to get out of Vader about it was that it used to belong to Padmé's family though Padmé was the one who most frequently used it. Her family had sold it after her death, and Vader managed to acquire it.

She snapped out her thoughts when she saw Luke reach over the edge of the boat to try to put his hand in the water.

"Luke. Come back in the boat," she said, using a little mental nudge to reaffirm her order.

Luke did so, and Ahsoka was glad he was too excited about the boat ride to argue with her about it because she didn't know if she had the patience right now.

"We're here!" Luke exclaimed once the boat docked

He nearly fell off the edge of the boat and into the lake in his eagerness to get out. Vader caught him and stood him upright outside the boat. Leia, on the other hand, stayed in her seat and waited for Vader to pick her up and place her next to her brother. Then they both ran off to roughhouse in the grass while Ahsoka helped Vader gather their things. She continued to glare at him in the meantime. He smirked in response, seeming all too pleased with himself.

The twins immediately got up out the grass to follow Vader as he passed while Ahsoka followed behind them. When Vader opened the doors to the retreat, Luke rushed ahead to explore while Leia stayed behind at Ahsoka's side to take in her new surroundings.

"It's pretty," Leia said.

"Yes. It is," Ahsoka agreed. "Why don't you look around with your brother?"

Leia nodded and went to follow Luke while Ahsoka took note of all the possible points of entry and exit like she always did when she was feeling antsy. She was sure Vader already had a team that took care of the security on a regular occasion since he felt secure enough in an impromptu visit. But Ahsoka continued with her check anyway before concluding they were safe. Relatively.

"What do you think?" Vader asked her.

"Now you care about my opinion."

"Not particularly. I just want to hear you admit I was right."

"We just got here. I don't know if you're right. Even if we leave and nothing happens, it doesn't mean you were right, and I was wrong. It just means we got lucky," Ahsoka stated. If he got to be difficult whenever he wanted to be, so did she. "But it feels… peaceful."

More than peaceful. She sensed Padmé here. Not Padmé on Coruscant, kind, calm, and put together as always but worried. Not Padmé when they went on missions; pragmatic, cunning when needed, and always compassionate. But she sensed Padmé without the mask of being a Senator or a diplomat. The glimpses of the woman she'd been privileged to see when it was just the two of them. Padmé, the friend. Padmé, the older sister. Padmé, even with all the things she'd been privileged to have, happiest when she just had the people she cared for around her. In a galaxy full of darkness and suffering that Ahsoka had long gotten used to, being in a place so filled with that kind of peace and contentment was almost overwhelming. Especially for someone like her, who had an exceptional affinity for Force empathy.

All Jedi had a degree of Force empathy, but Ahsoka had always been particularly attuned to it when she was younger. More able to sense people's true intentions, their true heart's desire, even when their actions contradicted them. Somewhere toward the end of the Clone Wars, she thought she lost the affinity because of the continued fine-tuning of her Force abilities during her padawanship. Jedi younglings having a power as a child and losing it as an adult when their emotions and personalities stabilized wasn't uncommon. But the affinity began to come back to Ahsoka little by little in recent years. Ahsoka didn't think it was a coincidence that it started to happen around the time she began to genuinely question the Jedi way and then renounced it completely.

"Padmé was happy when she was here," said Ahsoka. "She's everywhere around here."

"Is that what you sense?"

For all her powers of empathy, Vader had blocked her from sensing what he felt about that statement.

"Can we go outside?" Luke asked, having come back from his and Leia's exploration of the house.

"After, I show you your room," Vader answered, gesturing for the twins to follow him. Then he looked back at Ahsoka and asked, "Are you just going to stand there all day?"

Ahsoka gave him a wry look before following him. Their rooms were all clustered in the same hall on the second floor of the retreat. Once Leia and Luke had been shown their room and how to get there, they ran back the way they came to go outside. Vader followed.

Isolated as this place was, Ahsoka still didn't like the idea of being out in the open with no plausible cover for her being here. Thus, she opened the balcony doors of her room, which allowed her to see and hear Luke, Leia, and Vader out in the fields behind the property and decided to get some rebellion work done.

Normally, she would use these visits to take a break from the ever-growing pile of rebellion duties that more and more she was finding herself having to recruit people to delegate. But the work would help her not worry so much. There were no warnings in the Force and no physical indications of danger. She was just being as paranoid as she always accused Vader of being. Besides, the reports from both Diya and Barriss about a rebel cell on Eriadu were troubling.

When she got Diya's report, she instructed the girl to keep an eye on the situation and have Barriss make contact if needed. Diya could be as much of an unforgiving hardass as Vader sometimes—something that explained why the two didn't get along. But when Barriss told her about the uneasy feeling she'd had when she met with the cell and that some of their ideas sounded terroristic, Ahsoka began to get concerned. She became even more concerned when Barriss, who was as close to pacifist in her ideals as someone could get without being pacifist, suggested that the group might respond better to a more forceful brand of diplomacy.

Ahsoka wanted to think that maybe they were making a big deal out of nothing. But the more Ahsoka read the transcripts of multiple meetings, reports from no less than six agents, including Barriss and Diya, the more she suspected there might be something to their concerns. The Force told her there was a lot more. But she had time. Ahsoka would have to do something soon, but she didn't have to do anything about Eriadu now. She flagged the folder on her datapad to instantly notify of any updates that were uploaded about the situation before turning to the next thing on her to-do list.

Financial reports to look over and check off.

Ahsoka groaned in annoyance. Someone she could trust to deal with the finances was going to be her primary recruitment focus. But like anything with the rebellion, when no one else could do it, the task fell to her. And this was just the stuff she had to deal with running a fledging rebellion and getting into fighting shape to go to war. She couldn't imagine what it was like running the Empire. She wondered if Vader knew all this and more was in store for him when he became emperor. The prospect of paperwork and administrative work alone might deter him from wanting to rule the galaxy.

Ahsoka chuckled to herself some before resigning herself to reading the summaries. Inevitably, her eyes began to get heavy, the constant moving and being on the run starting to get to her. And one moment, she remembered putting the datapad down to rest her eyes for a moment, and the next she opened her eyes, it was dark, the balcony door was closed, her boots were off, and the covers were pulled over her.

Goodness, she must have been more exhausted than she thought if she didn't remember doing all that. She started to drift off again when something caught her attention. Ahsoka didn't need to use the Force to know that it didn't feel like danger, but certainly, her hunter instincts made her feel like she was being watched.

Ahsoka tiptoed out of bed, shifting her weight in such a way as she walked that her footsteps were silent. She first checked the twins' room first and found they weren't in bed. Then she looked in the room Vader had taken for himself and saw he wasn't there either. She silently went downstairs, following her connection with the twins and Vader to one of many living areas in the house.

She found the three asleep on top of a large blanket that they'd spread on the floor near the fireplace, the twins lying haphazardly over Vader's large form. The holocaster was on, and Ahsoka assumed at some point, Luke and Leia had roped Vader into watching their favorite cartoons with them. Half-empty bowls of their favorite snacks and sweets lay in a corner, and Ahsoka just hoped that Vader fed them actual dinner first before he let them con him into this.

Ahsoka decided to give Vader credit and assume that he did. For all that Ahsoka was the one with the twins all the time, Vader had taken to parenting with an ease and care that Ahsoka wouldn't have believed the Sith Lord to be capable if she didn't witness it with her own eyes. She imagined that if he could see them more often, he'd fret and fuss over them to the point that it was overbearing. To the rest of the galaxy, his mystique and legendary status lay with the fact that no one could fathom a living being as powerful as the whispers and ghost stories said he was.

For Ahsoka, the mystique lied in the fact that he could be everything that the galaxy thought he was—the dark monster, Sith, despot, ruthless, warrior, killer, murderer, and Force knew there was more—but at the same time could love his children though he didn't obviously show it. For instance, how he gave them his full attention when they talked to him even about the most mundane things. If Vader didn't care or wanted to ignore someone, he scowled, rolled his eyes, just walked away, or all three. Ahsoka would know. He did it to her frequently enough. She supposed the old Shili saying that even an Akul loved their cubs fit here.

The fact that he was so good with them and had such an impact on them when he might see the twins three times out the year if he were lucky sometimes made Ahsoka feel a little insecure about her place once all this was over. Once Sidious was gone, Vader was emperor, and he didn't have to hide them from his Sith master. When he could spend more time raising them, and he didn't have any use for her. Her fears for that future weren't usually something she dwelled on, but here in this place, filled with Padmé's love and joy, it was hard not to think about. Hard not to remember that, really, she didn't belong in this picture.

That feeling of being watched increased. Ahsoka resisted the urge to look out the window and alert the watcher that she knew they were there. She went back to her room, silently crept out onto the balcony and then the roof, making her way to the room Luke, Leia, and Vader were in from the outside.

Once she was there, she crouched on the edge of the roof and peered down below. Like her hunter instincts told her, someone was there. Vader must have been exhausted to almost death if he, in all his paranoia, hadn't sensed that. Whoever they were certainly didn't pose any danger because surely a threat to her children would have had the Force practically screaming at her. They only wanted to observe.

Ahsoka still didn't like it.

She leaped off the roof and landed silently on the ground behind the observer, lightsaber lit and at the side of the person's neck as soon as she stood.

"How about we not make any noise?" Ahsoka suggested. "I wouldn't want to wake the children."

"I don't mean any harm," said the female voice calmly, as though not bothered by a lightsaber at her neck. Ahsoka couldn't get a good read on her in the Force either. She wasn't Force-sensitive, but was trained in masking her emotions.

"Not very reassuring. Turn around. And tell me who you are."

The woman turned around. Ahsoka couldn't make out who the woman was or any defining features beyond the shadow of the woman's cowl. Only that she was human.

Before the woman could decide what to answer, the window behind them swung open, revealing Vader casually standing before it. If Ahsoka weren't as trained as she was, she would have probably jumped in startlement. The intruder would have probably jumped too if Ahsoka didn't have her lightsaber at her neck. Ahsoka would never know when or how Vader had gotten so good at moving so quickly so silently. Even in the suit.

"Sabé, you could have just knocked on the front door," Vader said in an amused, chiding tone.

"Sabé?" Ahsoka repeated.

"And you're always telling me about being so hasty with my lightsaber," Vader responded. When Ahsoka's expression didn't budge, Vader continued, "You can put the lightsaber away. Sabé means no harm. I've been waiting for her."

That statement said a lot of things to Ahsoka, but first and foremost…

"You knew she was here?"

"Yes."

"And you didn't tell me!"

"I didn't get a chance to." Before Ahsoka could dispute that, he continued, "Why don't we bring this inside? I'm sure we have a lot to talk about. Use the door this time, Sabé."

* * *

**AN: **Leia stole the show in the last chapter even though that was far from my intention. Lol.

This chapter is a little on the short side, but that was where it naturally ended. Some of Ahsoka's insecurities are starting to show here. Early twenties is a rough period, and as brilliant as Ahsoka is, she's not infallible from the normal problems of youth. As a character that becomes something of a true nomad in canon and who deals with asking herself who she is and what's her purpose, I thought it would be natural that she'd worry about her place and purpose in my universe too. Especially because she's never really gotten over the fact that, in her head, Padmé was supposed to be in her place and now Vader has dragged her to a place that Padmé loved so much. Vader has definitely never made that disconnect any easier on her either.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review please. I appreciate it.


	30. Sabé

**Chapter Thirty: Sabé**

"Are you serious? You knew she was watching the house and you didn't think to tell me that. You told me this place was secure," Ahsoka snapped at Vader from outside the sitting room they left Sabé in, just in their view.

Having the dark-eyed, brown-haired woman in her view did little to comfort Ahsoka, though. Just in case this was a distraction, she kept her bond with the twins wide open to sense any distress.

"It is secure."

"Someone spying on the house is not secure."

"I knew she was there. She wouldn't have been able to get this close if I hadn't let her."

"You let her? Who is she?"

"One of Padmé's former handmaidens."

"I never met her," Ahsoka replied as she remembered the handmaidens that she'd met during the Clone Wars. Dormé, Moteé, and Ellé, namely.

"She took care of things for Padmé that went beyond Coruscant," Vader replied vaguely. "Something like Diya is becoming to you."

"A spy to keep her informed in the places she can't be seen then. Or to be seen in the places Padmé needed to be seen so they wouldn't see where she was. Like a vacation with her secret husband," Ahsoka surmised.

"Effectively. After I found you and the twins, I went through incredible lengths to make sure no one went digging into Padmé's past, particularly the Naboo government after you told me about your mediocre efforts to keep the twins' birth from becoming known."

"It was good enough not to trigger an Imperial manhunt for Luke and Leia."

"No. It wasn't," Vader corrected bluntly. "The Naboo did their own autopsy. Yet somehow, they came back with the same results that the medical center you left came to. That Padmé died pregnant still from complications in childbirth. I did some investigating and found that they sent a team with Sabé to retrieve her. I later found out that she thought Padmé's death was suspicious and had been investigating it ever since. I've been allowing her to watch this retreat as part of her investigation for months now."

"And you didn't tell me."

"Why? I investigated her. She clearly helped hide the twins' birth by falsifying the autopsy. She doesn't want to draw any attention to them either, and I think she'd be a valuable asset to us. There was no need to tell you."

"Yeah, but it would have been nice to know before I sensed her watching us and before I put a lightsaber to her neck. And you just can't make decisions when Luke and Leia are concerned without me."

"Why not? You get to."

"You know _exactly_ why I get to do that," Ahsoka said, putting her hands on her hips. Force, she hoped Vader didn't make her spell it out for him. Reminding him that she was doing the bulk of raising the twins because he couldn't raise them and hide them from his master was sure to put him in a terrible mood.

"And I trust you when you do. So why don't you trust me?"

"It's not about not trusting you. But just because you think something is best doesn't mean it is." Again, his apprenticeship to Sidious was the prime example, but Ahsoka didn't feel like having that fight either. "I do at least consider what you'd think when I make choices with the twins. You didn't even think about what I thought of all this. And I know that because not once when I was going over all the reasons I didn't want to come to Naboo did you mention her."

"Because I knew you'd overreact."

"I'm not overacting. You're missing the point."

Vader rolled his eyes as frustrated with her as she was with him.

"Well, since you're so worried, all the more reason not to keep her waiting and talk to her," Vader said, walking away from Ahsoka and into the sitting room to talk to their guest.

Ahsoka let out a groan of frustration, asked the Force to give her patience, and then followed. She sat across from Sabé with her arms crossed, not even trying to hide her displeasure about all this.

Finally, Sabe said to Vader, "I thought you were dead with all the other Jedi."

Ahsoka was silent, not sure how exactly Vader planned to handle that one.

"The entire galaxy does," he replied. "For obvious reasons, it was just as imperative that people believed Anakin Skywalker died as it was for them to believed Padmé died pregnant. How long have you known that she wasn't?"

"Since after her autopsy, when I brought her body back to Naboo."

Ahsoka was less surprised that Sabé had fallen for Vader's deflection tactic than she was about the fact that Vader knew such a manipulative tactic in the first place. Then again, when you had a lot to hide, and a lot was at stake, you learned very quickly how to subtly get people focused on something else. Breha and Bail taught Ahsoka that one. Ahsoka supposed Vader hadn't survived his apprenticeship with Sidious and not have eventually figured out the tactic either.

"The medical center I was sent to retrieve her from said she died while still pregnant from a complication in childbirth, but Naboo ordered a second, especially when we found out her ship had been pawned," Sabé explained. "I managed to intercept the report and found out she'd given birth. Moteé informed me that a Jedi visited right before Padmé left the planet without telling anyone where she was going, and the next thing we heard, she was dead. Clearly, someone was trying to hide something. But I didn't know who, and I didn't know why. So I forged the official Naboo reports and have been investigating what happened to her and her child ever since."

Ahsoka was now even more concerned than she'd been before. "That's a lot of trouble to go through for a handmaiden."

The sabaac face Sabé had been wearing broke as she said indignantly with shining eyes, "Padmé wasn't just my mistress. She was my friend. Something wasn't right about her death, and her child was missing. She would have done the same for me."

Ahsoka understood the sentiment. Padmé would have intervened for anyone she'd cared about. She'd done it for Ahsoka on multiple occasions, even as little as getting Anakin to back off and stop being so overbearing after her exoneration.

Sentiment wasn't logical, though. Just because Sabé was loyal to Padmé didn't mean she'd be loyal to either of them.

"So you're looking for closure?" asked Ahsoka.

"Yes. But I also failed to protect Padmé when she needed me most. The least I could do was find out what happened to the child and help protect them."

Ahsoka raised an eye marking. "And now?"

"Now I'm sworn to protect both her children, no matter what and by any means necessary," Sabé declared.

If Sabé was insincere, Ahsoka didn't sense it. She had no reason to argue with the woman, though she wished she did just so Vader would stop being so smug about it. Ahsoka used the Force to give him the equivalent of a mental shove while sending him, _Shut up_.

"When you say, no matter what, how far can that boundary be pushed?" Vader asked, still exuding smugness.

Sabé's eyes flashed with something, but Ahsoka wasn't sure what. Sabé was like Padmé in the sense that she was a non-Force sensitive that was incredibly hard to get a read on through the Force.

Then the woman replied, "If you're asking, am I willing to help you despite the fact that you're Darth Vader and despite the fact that you now stand for everything Padmé was against, then the answer is pretty far."

Ahsoka couldn't help the widening of her eyes that Sabé knew that, but Vader didn't seem surprised at all. In fact, he was pleased.

"See, Ahsoka," he said without taking his eyes off Sabé, a smirk on his lips. "I told you she'd be a valuable asset."

Ahsoka wasn't convinced. If anything, she had more questions. But Vader seemed validated in his decision and decided to be a gracious host and show Sabé to a guest room to discuss the details of her service later. That included, Ahsoka found out later, briefing her about the rebellion. Nothing classified, Vader assured. Sabé was to be his personal agent in the same sense that Diya was Ahsoka's. But Sabé could blend into places to get information that none of them could, and she had the skillset to do it.

Grudgingly, Ahsoka again had to admit that he was right. During her briefing, Ahsoka still couldn't get a read on the woman, though. She wore a perfectly blank mask that Ahsoka was more frustrated by than she was surprised considering she'd once been Padmé's handmaiden and decoy.

"Why are you doing this?" Ahsoka finally asked.

Sabé didn't miss a beat as she said, "I already told you. I failed Padmé. I won't fail again."

"Even though Vader stands for everything she was against."

"You have to live for the people left behind. She left Luke and Leia behind. She'd want them safe. And if the best chance of ensuring that is working with him, that's what I'll do." Sabé gave Ahsoka a penetrative stare then; one Ahsoka met head-on. She stared Darth Vader down at his angriest with the dark side egging him on. Sabé, no matter what her skillset, didn't intimidate her. The human woman continued after a few moments, "I see why Padmé thought so highly of you."

"She talked about me?"

"Frequently." Sabé cracked a smile. "She always said she could have made one hell of a leader and politician out of you if she could steal you from Anakin and the Jedi. I can see why."

Ahsoka huffed. "Hardly."

"Your rebellion says otherwise."

"Other people laid the foundations."

"And modest to boot. You'd have given Palpatine a run for his money." When Ahsoka laughed dismissively, Sabé continued. "Padmé thought so. She said you were kind, honest, confident, quick to make friends, and compassionate with a sharp sense of justice and the desire to do the right thing. She also said you lacked tact and the patience to sit still and were easily bored, but nothing a little maturity wouldn't eventually solve."

"Well, I still don't have a lot of tact," Ahsoka said in a teasing tone, though she hadn't let her guard down. Raising the twins helped with the patience. It was hard to know if she were still easily bored because she always had something that needed her attention. There wasn't enough downtime to be bored.

"She said the only real problem was that you were a little too innocent, despite fighting in the war. Padmé had hoped the day wouldn't come that you lost that even though she knew in this kind of galaxy, it was inevitable."

Ahsoka didn't deny it. Whatever rose-colored lenses that were over her eyes had shattered along with the rest of her world the day Padmé died. She didn't mourn it anymore or wish to go back to the days where things were so sure, and she felt like she knew who her enemies were. She wouldn't have been prepared to fight Palpatine and be there to hinder Vader's darker tendencies every step of the way if she hadn't lost that innocence and faced reality.

"She saw a lot of herself in you but was convinced you were greater."

Not comfortable anymore with hearing Sabé talk about how high Padmé regarded her, Ahsoka asked, "How did you know he was Vader?"

Sabé winked and said, "The handmaidens know everything. Remember that." Then she said seriously, "He left a clue while I was investigating. So minuscule no one would have found it, not even if they knew Padmé. Or at least, they would have brushed it off as a coincidence or some unfathomable possibility. It was like he was testing to see how competent I was. That if I could figure that out, I was worth letting into his circle."

"That sounds like him. Would have been nice if he'd told me about it," Ahsoka replied. There was one more thing nagging her about all this, though. Just one. And better to lay such a pertinent truth out now than for Sabé to find out later when Ahsoka didn't have any control over what the other woman might do about it.

"I don't know what Vader has made you think you're getting into with him. He's capable of good and kindness, but in a lot of ways, he's every bit the monster people claim him to be," Ahsoka began.

"If this is your way of trying to prime me for the fact that he might have had something to do with Padmé's death, I know that too," Sabé replied. "The way I see it, I could try to get revenge and kill him, but then where would that leave Padmé's children when he plays some part in their protection?"

"That's assuming you could kill him," Ahsoka pointed out. Vader would hesitate for sure. If Ahsoka hadn't seen Padmé die with her own eyes, even she might be fooled by Sabé's uncanny resemblance to Padmé. But even if Sabé ever changed her mind about getting revenge, Vader at the very least wouldn't allow her to kill him even if he couldn't bring himself to strike her down. Ahsoka would have no such reservation.

Sabé quietly conceded that point and continued, "Besides, that's not what Padmé would have wanted. I would know. I tried to convince Padmé to quietly divorce him, that he wasn't worth her career. But she said there was more to him than what I saw on the surface."

"There is," Ahsoka replied simply.

There was no way to explain the nuance and duplicity that was Anakin Skywalker without getting to know him. He was the type of person that gave people back tenfold what they gave to him. Most of the time, the general dismissiveness, arrogance, and mean streak had been because people treated him the same way, thinking there was little to him beyond the brawns of the hero that war propaganda had depicted him as. Not many people had the openmindedness to take the time to get to know the totality of him. Not to mention, the Order hadn't left much room for the totality of him. If he had shown it, Ahsoka imagined he might have been expelled from the Order long before he destroyed it. Maybe even before she'd gotten the chance to know him at all.

As Darth Vader, the same was still true, but he now had no interest in allowing people to see his duplicity. Though Ahsoka admitted, it was harder to see past the wholly evil cyborg he publicly presented himself to be after the third or fourth genocide committed by his hands no matter whose authority enabled him. It had been a long time since he'd committed a great atrocity like that, though. Probably since right after they'd been reunited again. He was still bound to acts of cruelty, and there was only so much he could do to mitigate the Empire's current terror without falling under suspicion, but there had been _some _progress. He was definitely the much lesser evil compared to Palpatine, and Sabé seemed to have figured that out on her own, despite having no illusions about Vader's sins. Maybe she would eventually see the duplicity and nuance in him too.

"Can I ask you a question now?" Sabé asked.

"I suppose it's only fair since I've gotten your life story."

"What do you get out of all this? I understand you're doing it for Luke and Leia. But when you've fought your war and given Vader the Empire, what exactly will you do? A warrior, with no war to fight. A leader with no one else to lead because you'll have handed it all over. I can imagine you settling into the palace and being some kind of stay at home mom even less than I could see it with Padmé."

That, Ahsoka thought dryly to herself, was the million-credit musing of this entire trip. Without a war to fight, without Luke and Leia to raise, without a rebellion to run, what purpose did she have? What would her place be when no one needed her anymore?

Luke and Leia thundered down the stairs and ran directly to stand in front of where Sabé was seated at the table, giving Ahsoka a needed distraction from her mental brooding and an excuse not to answer Sabé's question. Both were practically bouncing on the balls of their feet.

"Daddy said you knew our first mother," Leia said.

"Can you tell us about her more?" Luke asked.

Ahsoka nudged them both mentally. When they looked at her, she gave them a patient, wry look.

"Oh. Right," they both said.

"Sorry for interrupting. I'm Leia."

"I'm Luke. Can you tell us about our first mother?"

"First mother?" Sabé asked with a frown.

"Padmé," Ahsoka explained simply.

Sabé laughed in delight—the first real emotion she'd expressed since Ahsoka met her the previous night—before looking at Ahsoka for permission. Ahsoka shrugged. Vader brought her here. There was no reason to keep her away from them now, and the twins knew the things they couldn't openly say. And if they weren't sure, they knew just not to say it. To exchange a look with each other (a way of having a quick mental conversation, Ahsoka assumed), giggle, and then make adults dismiss their behavior as silly childishness. She hadn't even had to teach them that. They figured it out on their own, and Ahsoka saw them use it masterfully on Bail, who Ahsoka was sure just thought Luke and Leia had concocted an imaginary friend named "Dad."

Ahsoka decided the fact that they were learning deceit so early was the very least of the things she needed to be concerned about. It was good they figuring out how to protect themselves. It also meant that Ahsoka didn't have a good reason to delay teaching Leia how to use a blaster or teaching Luke how to pilot, even if that meant inadvertently teaching them how not to need her.

Ahsoka groaned, deciding to follow Sabé and the twins into the living room. Maybe hearing Sabé regale the twins with stories of Padmé would help take her mind off her existential crisis.

* * *

**AN: **I don't know much about Sabé or her personality. There's not a lot to go off of to figure that out, even in canon. What I do know is that she had to have had a steely personality and the nerves to match to play Padmé's decoy during her queenship. I also imagine because of the nature of her job, she was probably very no-nonsense and even more pragmatic about situations than Padmé was. Also, there seems to be the general consensus of the fandom that her personality likely leaned that way.

The next chapter is going to please all of you who want this slow-burn to burn a little faster. The next chapter is a big step toward that direction.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review, please. We officially crossed 200 reviews as of last chapter! At some point, I'm going to have to find a way to answer guest reviews because I don't like to clog up my author's notes but I want to answer some of the questions that can be answered without spoiling the story. Maybe I'll make a Tumblr where guests can send in their questions and I can reply to them there. Let me know what you think of that.


	31. Place

**Chapter Thirty-One: Place**

Vader promised himself that he would always do the least amount of work that was possible to get away with during the few precious moments he got to spend with Luke and Leia. But when Sabé made her appearance, he couldn't pass up the perfectly discrete opportunity to integrate her into his circle. With her help, he could more quickly sift through the current higher ranking Imperial military personnel to figure out who was more likely to be loyal to him when he defeated the Emperor and who was likely to put up a challenge.

The clones' loyalty he would easily solidify, considering most of the Imperial army thought them to now be obsolete, especially after Sidious decommissioned the clone program on Kamino. He reassigned all clones still commissioned and in fighting condition to his fleet, the ones that worked directly under him having the elite shock trooper designation. Some of them would even take the place of the Imperial leaders deemed unfit to be in his service. The ones still on Kamino… well, Vader had a project for them.

But there was only so much vetting Vader himself could do while chasing ghosts for his increasingly paranoid master and also keeping his attention away from the fledging rebellion that Ahsoka was building. That's where Sabé and the other former handmaidens who'd been helping her investigate Padmé's death came in.

If there was one thing he'd learned about the human men who were mostly in charge of the Empire, it was that they both underestimated and couldn't resist a beautiful woman. Already exceedingly more well-trained than the average new recruits into Palpatine's military, Sabé and her group would be the perfect spies and, if needed, the perfect assassins. They had the perfect motivation to serve him because, in a roundabout way, serving him was serving their former mistress in the interest of keeping her children safe. The last time such a perfect opportunity fell into his grasp was when he'd stumbled upon Ahsoka and his thought-dead children three and a half years ago.

Vader scowled a little at the thought of Ahsoka. She'd been relatively quiet and reserved lately. Suspiciously so.

He knew from both Artoo and Threepio that Ahsoka tended to run herself thin, though it wasn't something he could particularly admonish her about since he tended to do the same. If he'd cared to admonish her, that was. But when he preoccupied himself with the twins on their visits, she frequently took the time to lock herself in her room for the better part of a rotation to rest. Hence why he hadn't thought anything unusual about her doing the same thing when they'd first arrived on Naboo, and he'd passed by her room to see her knocked out after falling asleep reading what looked like a financial report.

Except for a brief bout of hostility upon the discovery of Sabé, though, Ahsoka's mood worsened, and she isolated herself yet again. Her bad mood was so obvious throughout their second and then third day on Naboo, Luke and Leia even started to notice, and generally Ahsoka carefully shielded the two from her more negative emotions.

Not so long ago, Vader would have given anything to get Ahsoka to be quiet. To put an end to her blunt, honest remarks and accusations that never failed in making him confront uncomfortable truths about his past failures and what he couldn't do if he wanted to avoid repeating them. Now, the lack of that adversity and hostility, of constantly challenging him, meant something was very wrong. If something was wrong with Ahsoka, she was distracted. And if she was distracted, she couldn't adequately protect Luke and Leia when he couldn't be there, which meant getting to the bottom of this.

He took the approach to dealing with the matter that he always took with everything. Getting directly in its path and taking it head-on.

"What's your problem?" he demanded when he found her holed up in her room late that evening.

She regarded him the way she always did when she thought he'd lost whatever remaining sanity he had.

"Problem?" she asked, raising an eye marking.

"Yes. Whatever is agitating you has you broadcasting so loudly, it's a wonder half the planet doesn't sense you."

"I'm not broadcasting that loud."

"The fact that it's so apparent that I have to ask you about it tells a different story."

"Or maybe it's just this," Ahsoka said at the same time Vader felt a rough mental knocking as she found him through their old bond.

"My skill in the Force is not so unrefined that I cannot tell when I can only sense something from you and when you're projecting," Vader replied, never mind that their bond was probably making the projection worse.

Ahsoka gave him an unimpressed look, the one she'd perfected over the years of raising Luke and Leia and could make the two back down even at their most difficult. He wasn't her child, though, and so he fixed her with a dark look of his own.

When he wouldn't back down, she broke their gaze and sighed. "Just leave it, Vader."

Vader scoffed. "Coming from the master of being unable to leave things alone."

She couldn't disagree with him if she wanted, and Vader knew she knew that. Ahsoka made it her personal life's mission to not let anything go with him. To hinder him at every turn when she disapproved, to redirect his ire and hate to something more advantageous to her, and when all else failed, to make sure he very well knew she was displeased. Even when he threatened her or fought her as had been the case when they disagreed about the Jedi, she didn't leave things be.

"I don't wanna talk about it," she muttered, rolling away and turning her back toward him.

"Tough."

"Vader. Get out."

When he didn't, she rolled back over to face him, her expression now hostile. It might have worked on anyone else, the Imperial soldiers who spoke about "the Fulcrum" in quiet whispers of her prowess when she went out on a mission. But he'd taught her that look. He wasn't going to be intimidated by it.

"I am not above fighting you and forcing you out right now, Vader."

"As if you could."

"Not normally. But without your suit, I've got the advantage."

He'd forgotten about that, though he didn't know how. Although his new treatment was working, he'd found himself with a familiar tightness in his chest while chasing after the twins and had been forced to use his ventilator while the twins were occupied with Sabé's stories about Padmé. Just thinking about the crippling weakness caused him to lose his practiced restraint over the dark side. Rather than tell him to stop projecting, though, Ahsoka's presence reacted by flaring to meet his. If a fight was what she wanted, he certainly had no problems giving it to her.

"Mama. It's loud."

Both Vader and Ahsoka turned to Luke. He was standing sleepily in the doorway in his pajamas, his tone conveying his frustration at being awakened.

"Sorry. We didn't mean to talk so loud," Vader said tersely.

"I mean up here," Luke said, tapping his finger on his forehead.

Simultaneously, both he and Ahsoka retreated their Force signatures behind shielding.

"Sorry for that too, then," Ahsoka said, having a much easier time removing the earlier hostility from her tone than Vader had. "Let's get you back to bed, little one."

She walked past Vader, decidedly not looking at him, and took Luke's hand. As he watched her walk away, Vader didn't need to be a genius to know that she wasn't coming back. Luke and Leia were nowhere near as clingy to her as they'd been a few years ago, but Ahsoka would take the excuse of them needing her to avoid him for the rest of the night.

Times like these, he really wished Padmé were still alive. Not that there was ever a time he hadn't, especially those early months of the Empire when he had nothing and no one to live for, and the Force seemed unwilling to allow him to just die, no matter what he'd done. Then when he'd discovered the twins, he wished she were still alive not for his own sake, but for theirs. Even if it meant she hated him for all that he had done in her name. All that he had done to her in the end. At least she wouldn't be dead.

The Force whispered something—an accusation, a truth—at that thought, but Vader would not go down that path. The past was better left where it was and that truth unknown.

Regardless, the desperate desire for Padmé to be alive was a lot less nowadays. However, there were times he sorely wished she still lived to give him some of her patient advice that he hadn't appreciated as much as he should have. To feel her put her hand on his arm to soothe him and encourage him to think things through.

_Like you should have let her before you pledged yourself to Sidious_, a treacherous voice that sounded a lot like Ahsoka said to him.

Another truth better left in the past.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder what Padmé would have advised him if she was here. If she was, it certainly would not be the first time he'd run to her for advice on how to deal with Ahsoka when she was in one of her moods, or they'd had a disagreement. There had been a lot of those during her apprenticeship to his former self.

_"You have to be patient with her," _Padmé had advised gently. _"Don't be so overbearing. She's a teenager. It's a difficult time for her, even as a Jedi. You can't force your way in. That'll just make her close off even more. Just be there, Ani. Talk about or do something else with her. She'll eventually open up. You'll see."_

Ahsoka was far from the sometimes moody teenager she'd once been, having mellowed out considerably in the last few years. He wasn't sure if that's just what happened with womanhood, raising the twins, or running a rebellion—likely a combination of all three. But maybe Padmé's old advice would still work, even if it meant having to exercise the two things even he could admit not having much of.

Patience and tact.

Patience with the one person in the galaxy who knew best how to test those boundaries the most when she wanted to. Even better than the Emperor. And tact? Well. He'd never been known for that.

Vader was tempted to just forget about it. If she wanted to brood, so be it.

But he had too much pride to simply let her dismiss him the way she had and determined to confront her again anyway. Just… less forcefully this time.

He found her early the next morning, sitting next to the lake barefooted and looking like she was trying to meditate. If he wasn't sure something was wrong before, now he was certain. She was never one for sitting still, even to meditate, unless something was truly bothering her. Based on how off-balanced and agitated he still sensed her to be, meditating wasn't working.

He started to just sit next to her before he remembered. Tact. Right.

"Would you mind if I joined you?" he asked.

"Would you even care if I did?"

No.

"Perhaps."

"Whatever," Ahsoka groaned as she opened her eyes and put her feet in the lake. "Meditating wasn't doing anything anyway."

"Doing anything about what?"

Ahsoka didn't answer. Vader should have known she wouldn't make it that easy for him.

Fine. Patience. Talk about something else. It wasn't like he didn't have a long list of things he probably needed to discuss with her anyway, but most of those were probably guaranteed to start an argument between them, and then he'd be even further from his objective. He needed something simpler. Not small talk. Force, he hated small talk. But something… something calm.

"Why do you call Padmé the twins' first mother?" he decided on. He figured he may as well satisfy his curiosity, even if it was always a risk bringing up anything to do with Padmé between the two of them.

Ahsoka gave him a look between unimpressed and baffled as she answered, "Because she is…"

"I mean, why call her first mother? Why not birth mother?"

Ahsoka stilled looked a little baffled, and Vader reminded himself to be patient even if it wasn't that hard to grasp what he was asking. Finally, she shook her head and turned back to look at the lake.

"Oh. That. I guess it's more of a cultural thing. There's no such thing as an orphan for togruta. There's not even a word for the concept. Childrearing is traditionally the responsibility of the whole community, and if the biological parents die, someone just takes the youngling into their family. Usually, whatever family the child gravitates to the most," Ahsoka said with a shrug. "The biological mother is always the first mother. And children take their first mother's family name to honor her for the sacrifice of carrying them. It distinguishes her from the many other mother figures a togruta may have in their lives, whether the first mother lives to raise them through to adulthood or not."

"So, what would that make you?" Vader asked. "Second mother?"

Ahsoka laughed. "No. Just Luke's and Leia's mother. It's easier to comprehend if you know togruti. There's a word for first mother and another word for mother. The first mother is a mother, but a mother isn't always the first mother." A pause. "That wasn't confusing. Was it?"

"No. It's just li—"

"Just like what?"

"Nothing," Vader replied. Yet another thing better left in the past. Ahsoka gave him that look again, and Vader scoffed, "You make that face so much that Leia looks at me like that now."

"You deserve it. I have to put up with her demanding personality and bad temper. It's like Padmé had nothing to do with that girl except for her looks."

"You say that as though it's a bad thing."

"Not always. She can be surprisingly kind and thoughtful when she wants to be," Ahsoka replied, raising an eye marking at him and giving him a knowing smile.

"I have no idea what you're getting at," Vader replied immediately, concentrating on the lake.

"You're actually worried about me."

Vader scoffed. "Don't delude yourself. I'm not worried about you. Only concerned as far it has to do with making sure you don't lose focus on our end goal and protecting Luke and Leia with your life."

"Right."

She rolled her eyes and scowled as she said this, and a feeling in the Force told him that he'd unwittingly managed to remind her of whatever was bothering her.

"Out with it," Vader demanded. Tact and patience be damned.

"It's stupid."

"Perhaps. But I'll determine that."

Belatedly, Vader realized that wasn't the best response and prepared for Ahsoka to make some snippy remark and leave. To his surprise, she didn't move. Not immediately anyway. Just sat in thoughtful silence.

Then she said grudgingly, "I cannot believe I'm about to tell you of all people this. But maybe you're the only one that can give me an answer because you know about everything," She paused again, and this time Vader elected to be patient with her. Again.

Finally, she began, "You know those early days of the Empire, when I'd lost everything, it was just me and the twins. I wasn't used to not having any backup or someone there to help me figure things out, but that didn't matter. They were the only thing I had, and they needed me. So I had to figure it out for them, even though I had no clue what I was doing. They were the only thing that kept me going. It was probably a little unhealthy, and in the long run, might not have been good to make them help me bear the emotional weight of all my traumas, but it gave me purpose. It made me not feel… pointless. Like the galaxy didn't need me. And now I've got the rebellion too, but…"

Vader wasn't exactly sure what to do when he sensed her become self-conscious. What was he supposed to say to her laying her heart out like this? He'd never bothered to consider how hard the rise of the Empire might have been on her. How could he have when he had to live with the fact that everything had gone so wrong for him? Even now, the memory of the first two years of the Empire were hazy at best while he'd been drowned by and under the complete controlling grip of the dark side. And when he tried to let it go, the guilt and grief of what he'd done drove him so insane he was sure he'd tried to commit suicide at least twice. It might have been more.

But now that he could think beyond his own troubles, at least when it came to Ahsoka, he remembered that he floundered and had to adjust when the twins first came into his life at nearly two standard years. At the time, Ahsoka seemed able to interact and deal with them with the same grace and calm she did on the battlefield. It never occurred to him how hard it might have been at first. A teenager, built to be the sword of a government, suddenly responsible for two newborns. Without Obi-wan. Without Padmé. Without him. But like everything she got into, Ahsoka toughed it out and made the best of it. That didn't mean she had not felt the weight of her burden or that the circumstances hadn't wounded her.

The Sith way to respond to this would be to tell her she was acting weak and foolish. The Jedi way, to tell her to be mindful of her feelings and that she was made her stronger in the end, was no better. Both ways would probably end up sparking her fury.

_Just be there, Ani, _Padmé probably would have advised him.

In the end, Vader reached for the mental bond that he pretended not to notice was slowly but steadily repairing itself and sent something across it that was like encouragement. Ahsoka responded by wrapping its coolness around her, not shying away from his darkness.

"Sometimes, I can't help but wonder about the future. When the twins are grown up and don't need me to be their mother anymore. When we defeat Sidious, and there's no need for a rebellion, and you're the emperor. What's out there for me then? A veteran who's been fighting wars since she was a teenager but no use when there's no war to fight. "

_What happens when you don't need me anymore?_ Came the verbally unasked question across their bond though Vader wasn't sure Ahsoka meant to send it or even knew that she had.

Truthfully, he didn't know what would happen once they defeated his master. Some days, he wondered himself. His entire life, former and present, there was always an enemy to chase, a noble cause to fight. He'd be emperor. That much he was sure of. He'd even started to get glimpses of it in his meditation. Nothing particularly clear, but definitely a strong impression. Beyond that, though, Vader did not know.

What he did know was that at the very least, they'd be putting down skirmishes, challengers, and terrorists for years after they won, even if Vader knew they would stand no chance against his Empire's might. But if he didn't need her to help in that effort, Ahsoka was vastly underestimating her talents. Plenty of systems would willingly seek her out for their own gain once she'd served her purpose of helping him take the Empire.

Something dark, primal, and possessive rose in him at the thought of Ahsoka pledging her loyalty to helping someone else. Even if that didn't mean she was betraying him or his Empire. No. That would never do.

"If you want me to reassure you that you'll still be needed after all this is over, I can't. I'm not sure what the broader galaxy will need once I'm emperor. Perhaps they won't need a veteran who's only good at fighting wars but doesn't have a war to fight," Vader admitted. Before she could become frustrated at him and storm off for being unhelpful he added, "But regardless of what the galaxy and the Empire needs, I assure you. Fail together or win together, there will always be a place for you at my side, my friend."

The last part slipped out without any thought, surprising him as much as he sensed it surprised Ahsoka. But… it wasn't untrue, now that Vader thought about it. They were complicated on the best of days and positively explosive on the worst, but Vader supposed she was a friend. He hadn't had one of those in a long time.

"Friend?" Ahsoka asked.

He wondered if she heard the Force humming in approval too.

"I will not repeat it."

"Sith Lords can have friends?"

They probably weren't supposed to. Palpatine certainly didn't. Only pawns, some of whom he favored more than others. But Jedi weren't supposed to have attachments either, let alone a wife and children. Vader had no clue why he thought he would be any better at that after becoming a Sith, especially once he discovered Luke and Leia lived despite his attack on Padmé while she still carried them. Appearances were important, though. Even more important serving Sidious than it had been when serving the Jedi. There would be time to explore other Sith and dark side philosophies when Sidious wasn't around to punish him for it.

"Do not try my patience," he warned instead. There was no real bite to his tone.

"Whatever. Wouldn't wanna be your friend anyway considering the type of people you consider friends. Like Tarkin," she added wryly.

Tarkin wasn't a friend. He was a necessary acquaintance who Vader decided would be easier to cooperate with than to actively challenge for now. Tarkin certainly would be no use to him once Palpatine was dead. If Takin survived past Palpatine's death because he would certainly be one of the Joint Chiefs to challenge Vader's claim to the Empire. That was without the grudge Vader still had against the man for his involvement in Ahsoka's trial. He might not have framed her. He might have even been just doing his job. But he'd been complicit in the Senate's and the Order's desire to maintain the illusion of peace and safety on the galactic capital by using Ahsoka as a scapegoat. That was something Vader had no intention of forgiving.

Ahsoka didn't know all that.

"I can't be angry with or hate Offee, but you can with Tarkin?" he asked.

"Barriss was a pawn in a game none of us knew we were being used in. Tarkin has had it out for me since the Citadel."

"He hasn't."

"He pushed for my prosecution and for the death penalty even when he had no evidence."

"He was just doing his job."

"Doing his job? His job was to find the real culprit. Not—" Ahsoka paused. "You ass. You're messing with me."

Vader shrugged in answer, and the two lapsed into a companionable silence. They might have stayed there for the rest of the morning if not for the sound of Luke and Leia shouting at each other coming from the house.

"I don't know what's harder. Running the rebellion or those two," Ahsoka said, getting to her feet. "What do you think?"

"Definitely those two. Leia may have my temper, but Luke has Padmé's stubbornness."

"Tell me about it," Ahsoka replied as they started for the house before the twins broke something in their fight. She paused, though, grabbing his arm to stop him.

He raised his eyebrows in askance, and she looked away from him before looking back up.

"Thank you, _Anakin_."

A few years ago, her calling him that would have infuriated him, but from her, this was something he'd allow. Sometimes.

Still…

"I keep telling you. That name no longer has any meaning."

"Who are you trying to convince? Me or you?"

"Besides," Vader grumbled, ignoring her question, "You're a lot less entertaining when you're in a bad mood even if you do infuriate me a lot less when you are."

* * *

**AN: **Shockingly, no one asked me why I kept using the term "first mother" instead of "birth mother." I was sure someone was going to ask me about that. But no one did. Not that I mind. It meant I didn't have to tell people that I explain it later. Anyway, there's so much potential for different cultures in the Star Wars universe, and I take every chance I can get to add it in my story and give this story flavor.

Anywho, this was a big step for Vader and Ahsoka. Because now there's the mutual acknowledgment that they're more than a convenient pawn to each other. That even at their most explosive and even though their relationship is a little toxic right now, they consider the other a friend. The door to something more than that could not be opened, in my opinion, without them getting over that hurdle. Things begin to start falling into place a little faster after this. But only a little. Also, writing Vader trying to be nice and considerate but still being all Vader-y was a delight to write.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review, please!


	32. Ekkreth

**AN: **I don't normally like my notes at the beginning of the chapter, but it's needed for this one.

This chapter serves as a set up for two things. One, for a future part of this story. Two, as a seamless transition to the rest of the remaining arc in this part. This subplot was planned from the very beginning. Before I even had a word of this story typed. That future arc also would have required me creating some slave culture lore. Frankly, I didn't feel like doing that. This story is epic enough in scope. So, I borrowed a few elements from the slave culture that my fellow star wars writer Fialleril came up with (this site doesn't let me link so just google their name plus Star Wars). Nothing I could have come up with would have ever topped that, and it would have been influenced by their world anyway.

From the amount of works inspired by theirs and how it's kinda been accepted as fandom canon, I'm assuming they're pretty liberal about allowing people to borrow elements from their worlds and lore. Most people know of it, but I wanted to shout them out here anyway and direct you to read their fics if you've never read them before, particularly the Double Agent Vader Series. Some great Leia and Vader interactions in that story.

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Two: Ekkreth**

The cloning facilities on Kamino had long since shut down, one of Palpatine's first acts as Emperor, as they no longer served a purpose to the Empire. Nor was the Imperial fleet accepting any of the remaining clones that had been produced and were still being raised there. The Kaminos themselves had been cast aside like everything and everyone else that had helped bring Palpatine to power but was no longer useful to him. Luckily for them, Palpatine also hadn't seen them as a threat to his power. For now, they were left on their planet in relative peace. The cloning facilities, while shutdown, still housed the clones that hadn't matured by the end of the war; paid for but with no direction what to do with them.

Vader had a solution for that. Finally.

"Lord Vader," the Kamino who greeted him said. "Right this way. Your guest is waiting for you."

Vader didn't answer, but the Kamino cloners weren't easily offended. Business-minded as they were, they didn't care much for pleasantries and unnecessary small talk either. The Kamino man led him to a room near the back of the facility, bowed his head, and departed right afterward.

Vader used the Force to activate the lock mechanisms of the door and strode inside, immediately catching the attention of the young togruta woman in the room.

"Kriffing kriff," she exclaimed at the same time as she managed to draw her blaster and point it at him.

"Put that away. If I meant you any harm, I would have harmed you already," Vader said dismissively.

"Obviously, you don't recall the last time we met. You tried to kill me. Twice."

"Your own fault."

Diya narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips at him, but decided to say nothing and put her blaster away. Good. The more time he spent arguing with the girl, the less time he had to deal with things that mattered.

"Have a seat," he directed. "We have many matters to discuss."

"I'm sure you can understand why I prefer to stand."

Vader Force-shoved the girl backward and into her seat before sitting on the other side of the small round table.

She didn't try to get up again but immediately asked, "Why the hell did you call me here? Why even go through the trouble of using your stupid spies to get me here at all? If it's something about the rebellion, isn't it just something you could run by Ahsoka."

"What I've called you here for, child, has nothing to do with the rebellion or Ahsoka, even though I'm sure she would gladly assist if I asked it of her. I think we can both agree on the fact that she has enough to deal with."

"I'm not a child," Diya responded flatly.

Not as much of a child as she'd been when he met her three years ago, certainly. She was just barely a shorter than Ahsoka now and slighter in build, but she used her relation and resemblance to Ahsoka well in service of the rebellion. The Jedi impersonator, she was known as in the Empire, for pretending to be his former apprentice. A genius plot that effectively kept anyone from looking for the real Ahsoka Tano, even Palpatine once his spies and Vader brought the information that she was an imposter. Someone pretending to be a former Jedi was a lot less dangerous than the actual former Jedi, which meant even if Ahsoka were sighted on her missions, the Empire would assume she was just the imposter and underestimate her. Not that Diya should be underestimated as quick of a draw with her blaster as she was.

The Emperor had instructed him to leave the matter alone. He had more important matters to deal with than some silly child who was foolish enough to impersonate a Jedi. Vader made sure he gave Palpatine the impression that he was going to do it anyway. It was what Palpatine expected of him. If he and Ahsoka hadn't already reconciled—probably too strong a word—he'd certainly go in search of the imposter who dared try to take on the name of the woman who had gravely injured him and betrayed him. Besides, it presented the perfect excuse to make contact with the girl.

He didn't answer her denial, and apparently, she didn't expect him to because she continued, "And yes. She does have a lot to deal with."

"Eriadu," Vader guessed dryly.

"Yeah."

The weariness in her tone was evident. From what he'd gathered when Ahsoka told him about the situation, the planet's rebel cell wanted to take more aggressive actions against the Empire on their planet. Shortsighted actions that would not only attract a response they weren't prepared for and give Palpatine more ammunition to label them terrorists but, more importantly to Ahsoka, actions that might also kill civilians in the process. She was planning a personal visit to get to the bottom of the matter and talk them out of whatever foolish notions of revenge they'd concocted. Vader doubted talking would be an effective measure to which Ahsoka pointed out that going in with lightsabers blazing wasn't the solution to every problem.

_"My experiences say otherwise."_

_"You do know that's not always going to work when you're emperor. Not unless you want someone to raise a real rebellion against you."_

Admittedly a good point. But he wasn't emperor yet.

"Wait," Diya suddenly asked. "How do you know about that?"

"We're co-conspirators. She frequently seeks my advice on matters she thinks are troubling."

"Since when?" Diya asked with a laugh. "Co-conspirators you may be, and you've both got some weird sentimentality for each other. But she's never sought your advice on rebellion matters before, even when you feed her information."

It was none of her business, but Vader had decided with Ahsoka that it was essential to cultivate the rumors and perceptions of their history together to the people in their innermost circles. Thus, he decided to humor the girl's curiosity.

"It came up in passing conversation."

"What kind of passing conversation? I wasn't aware that you all had any conversations beyond what's required to ask you not to commit an atrocity until she gets her people out or you telling her you're about to commit one and warn her just in case she has people there. That or you two threatening each other," Diya said bluntly.

Despite very clearly remembering that he'd almost killed her twice the last time they crossed paths, she was still undeterred from asking questions about matters that did not concern her. She was either fearless or stupid. Exactly why he could use her either way.

"Our relationship is not nearly as hostile as you have made it up in your mind to be."

"She came back from Bacrana with her ribs and leg still healing from where you fractured them!"

"It was in the course of our respective duties. Nothing personal."

"Looked pretty personal to me." Then she added as an afterthought, "I hope you don't fight like that in front of Luke and Leia. You and Ahsoka's domestic issues can be damaging to kits their age."

Vader chose not to ask what the girl thought she knew about his relation to Luke and Leia. It wasn't necessary to know for him to mislead her. But as far as Ahsoka had told him, most people who hadn't known her at the end of the Clone Wars were under the assumption that she was their biological mother. Diya didn't even question it. Apparently, human and togruta hybrids weren't as rare on Shili as they were in the broader galaxy with it being common enough for the resulting children to take after either the human or the togruta parent. He assumed that Diya pieced together that he was the twin's father and thus assumed at some point during the Clone Wars, he was Ahsoka's lover. Ahsoka never corrected the assumption. Vader wouldn't either. The air of mystery that he kept around his past and that Ahsoka kept around the twins by letting people assume she was their birth mother protected them all the more from Palpatine.

"Indulging your curiosity and conjecture about the nature of my relationship with Ahsoka is not what I called you here for," Vader said dismissively, likely solidifying Diya's false belief in whatever she thought she'd figured out.

"Then what am I here for, my lord?" the young woman asked, no doubt purposely taking the rasp out her natural voice to mimic Ahsoka's.

"Tell me about your dealings with the Liberty Lane."

Diya's facial expression didn't change, but one of her lekku twitched in discomfort about something, and panic came off her in waves in the Force. He made a mental note to mention to Ahsoka to help the girl in solidifying her mental shields. Most people didn't know the different social cues and tells of a togruta's lekku, though gaining refinement in her control of that wouldn't hurt Diya either.

To her credit, though, she realized she'd given herself away because she didn't try to lie to him about their existence.

"How do you know about that?"

"I have my ways."

Before his former self followed the Jedi off the dustball that was Tatooine, there were whispers in the slave quarters of allying with the smugglers, many of whom had debts to the Hutts and had more to gain breaking the institution of slavery than upholding it. The smugglers would help them find secret and sometimes undiscovered hyperspace route to smuggles slaves out of Hutt space. Liberty Lane, the potential collection of routes were coined by the time his former self left the planet.

Diya didn't need to know all that.

"Whatever operations you are part of have not been compromised."

"When the number one enforcer of an empire that all but signed slavery into its constitution asks you about operations that are supposed to be secret, that's call a kriffing compromise," Diya stated defensively. "Whatever the hell you're planning, you can plan it without me and without the Liberty Resistance."

"Is that what you're calling your underground slave rebellion now?" Vader asked. The girl gave nothing away this time. He stood from his chair. "Come with me."

He started out the room without waiting for her, but with no other choice, she eventually followed. As they made their way through the halls and towards the old cloning and clone housing facilities, Vader said, "You are lucky the Jedi never found you."

"Trust me. I know. Otherwise, I'd be dead right now."

"Or worse."

"Worse?"

"The Order would have killed your passion to eradicate slavery from the galaxy in the name of the will of the Force and being peacekeepers."

Diya huffed. "Can't say I disagree with you. Ahsoka says the Jedi were well-meaning, and maybe that's true. At least, it's true from the ones I've met. And I certainly don't agree that they should have all been killed without being given a chance to defend themselves, especially when most of them had no clue why they were being persecuted," Diya added with a pointed glare.

It was an argument he'd had with Ahsoka a dozen times. Just what the Jedi Order had been guilty of. He'd been sure after embracing the dark side that there was a plot to overthrow the Republic and that all the Jedi were complicit in doing so. Now he wondered if perhaps, in those first hours of dark side euphoria and the liberation he'd felt with it, he hadn't conflated the Order's actual crimes against the Republic with his personal issues with the Order and the people in it. Because one thing Ahsoka wasn't was gullible. If she said that the Jedi she gave sanctuary to had no idea about a plot to overthrow the Republic, then perhaps it had only been a plot that the High Council and other higher-ranking authorities in the Order had known about. Perhaps in his shortsightedness and zeal to prove himself to Palpatine for a promise he had no intention keeping, he'd destroyed talent that could have been groomed for his future Empire.

Perhaps.

It still didn't change that the remaining Jedi eventually had to die. Now that he started it, he had to see their destruction through. There was no other option.

Diya continued, "But impact is greater than intention, and from everywhere else except the Core, it just looked like they conflated maintaining the status quo with peacekeeping. And Ahsoka has to know that. Otherwise, she wouldn't be so adamant about not letting any Jedi near Luke and Leia. Sounds like to me the Jedi had their destruction coming at some point anyway. And I can't exactly say they wouldn't have deserved it."

"Precisely."

Once again, with her comment about the Jedi's inevitable destruction, Diya proved her likeness to Ahsoka ended with her looks. Diya was ruthless, unforgiving, and showed no mercy. Not inclined to give people any benefit of the doubt. It's why Ahsoka found her so useful and frequently sent the girl to hunt and track the more dangerous inquisitors and dark side adepts of the Emperor. Even with little training, she'd bested the ones she did manage to come across, leaving little evidence that would track them to her. If he didn't already know she was responsible, even Vader would have had a hard time pinning the girl for the deeds.

She'd make a good apprentice if Vader didn't find her so irritating and he had any interest in actually taking an apprentice besides Ahsoka.

"Personally, I am of the opinion that to establish peace and order, you have to disrupt the peace of those hindering it."

She wouldn't admit it, but he sensed Diya approved his sentiment as they made their way down a hall and to a viewing window of what the Kaminos told him were a "freshly matured batch" of clone troopers.

"What's this?" she asked, eyes narrowing in distrust yet again.

"Resources."

"Resources?"

"The only thing stopping the Liberty Resistance from breaking ground are resources."

"I'm guessing this is you offering."

"As you may or may not know, the emperor decommissioned the clone program after the war, but the Kamino had many left over to raise. One of my duties is overseeing their progress and eventual placement into the navy. Most of them will join my personal fleet."

"And you're giving me the rest to help fight slavery?" Diya asked blandly. "What's the catch?"

"There is none."

"The Empire's military-industrial machine is run by slavery. What interests do you have in stopping it?"

"You mistake my tenuous fealty to Palpatine as agreement with his policies. Make no mistake; I have no intention of using slavery in my empire."

"Your intention is nice, but you're presenting me with what's essentially a glorified slave army. You're using these same troops in your fleet."

"The status of the clone army in the Empire is a complicated matter. At present, it would be dangerous for me to go before the Emperor to advocate for them. Doing so might tempt him to call for their destruction. At least as part of my fleet and under my oversight, they're under my protection until I can do something about it. Surely Ahsoka has taught that sometimes to win the war—"

"You have to concede the battle," Diya grumbled. "I know."

Useful. But the girl still had a lot of growing to do.

"You will be focusing the bulk of your efforts, for now, in Hutt Space."

Diya scowled at that. Vader could imagine why. In his former life, while his hands had been tied concerning what he could do, he'd still followed much less mainstream coverage of what was going on regarding the brewing slave revolts of the Outer Rim. While the Republic had chosen to respect the Hutt's sovereignty and protect their interest in the hyperspace lanes Jabba controlled, they at least turned as much of a blind eye to the slave revolution's efforts as they did to the slave plight in the Outer Rim in the first place.

Under the Empire, things had only gotten harder with slavery seeing an increase and any progress of the slavery resistance reversed. A reversal that Vader grudgingly admitted he was guilty of exacerbating while blinded by his own pain and grief and wanting nothing more than for the rest of the galaxy to suffer the same.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why ask me of all people to spearhead this for you? You hate me. And I hate you. You could have gotten anyone. Hell, before even that, why the sudden interest in stopping the slave trade at all? You didn't have it before. You could just wait. You could do something about it when you're conveniently on a throne, no one can oppose you, and you've got nothing to lose. And don't bullshit me about it being the right thing to do. A man like you doesn't do acts of kindness because it's right. You do things because it's personal. That or Ahsoka talked you into it," Diya added with a longsuffering sigh.

He didn't have to justify himself to anyone. Least of all to Ahsoka's exasperating agent. But right now, she was a useful tool. May as well make her easier to use.

"Long ago, I made a promise, child. I don't like to break my promises."

"Really?"

"Not without good reason. I never said I wouldn't or that I don't."

He'd broken many over the years. To Padmé. To his children. To Ahsoka. To the galaxy. To his home, regardless of how much he hated it. The damage was done. Some he could rectify. If he used the excuse that he was waiting to become Emperor, then he'd find another reason to push it off, and he'd be no better than the Jedi, the Republic, Palpatine, and Palpatine's empire—all of which he passionately hated with a burning fury that he still only barely controlled. One day he would unleash it yet again to destroy Palpatine and take his empire.

One day.

For now, a step in the right direction toward true peace and order.

"As to your first question, the value of your skillset and ambition outweigh my disdain for you. I advise you not to tip the scales of that balance in a way that would make you more trouble than you are worth," Vader warned.

"I knew you had a death threat in there for me somewhere," Diya said, exasperated. Then she asked, "I don't have to worry about any clones going psycho on me because of some stupid order on those control chips in their heads, do I?"

"It's been handled sufficiently enough for the time being," Vader replied.

As long as the money had been flowing, the Kaminos did their jobs without question. But they hadn't been stupid. They'd been very aware that someone as devious as Palpatine could turn on them and with a little persuasion had shown him how to activate the failsafe to shut down the chips. And Ahsoka said he couldn't use a lightsaber to solve all his problems.

"And what do I tell them when I come offering aid?"

A person who didn't know slave culture would have wondered why such a thing mattered. But slaves were slow to trust, even slower letting people into their communities, and even quicker to judge one untrustworthy. Vader had thought of that too. A way that this personal vendetta of his would also help Ahsoka's rebellion and eventually be part of a foundation that he built his future empire on.

"Tell them you come in the name of the Fulcrum and that Ekkreth directed her to send you," Vader instructed as he walked past the girl to leave her to contact whoever she needed to get to planning. "And Diya, if ever the occasion arises, be sure to show no mercy."

* * *

**AN: **This is the only chapter in this part with no Ahsoka and Vader interaction. And even though there's not, she still comes up in discussion. That said, I'll probably post the next chapter early. And when I mean early, I mean on Friday. And it'll be an extra chapter, meaning you would still get your regularly scheduled chapter for Sunday. I think I said everything that needed to be said in the first author's note. But no doubt you'll ask me your questions in your reviews if there's anything you want clarified or just for curiosity's sake.

Hope you enjoyed!


	33. Mission

**Chapter Thirty-Three: Mission**

"Remember, Leia—"

"Hold it with both hands, feet spread, lean forward slightly so I won't go backward from the recoil, aim, keep my breaths steady, listen to the Force," Leia repeated sagely.

Ahsoka smiled and readjusted the girl's earmuffs before stepping back and nudging her in the Force to go ahead.

Leia pulled the trigger on the blaster, hitting the practice dummy right in the marking over the heart. She squealed in excitement, jumping and turning to face Ahsoka.

"I hit it!"

"I saw. Good job. Now let's see if you can do it again," Ahsoka suggested.

Leia whirled back around again, and while she adjusted her stance, Ahsoka took a moment to look over at Luke. He was sitting in the corner of the blaster range of the Alderaanian Palace, studying the flight simulator manual for the test he had to take to advance to practical lessons. Ahsoka had never seen him so quiet and studious before. Not to say that he wasn't intelligent. But it was to say that if she didn't know what he was studying for, Ahsoka would be suspicious that he was so quiet.

Two blast shots in a row caught Ahsoka's attention, and she turned back just in time to catch Leia as she stumbled back from the recoil of the consecutive shots.

"Leia."

"I know. One shot at a time. For now," the girl added, rolling her eyes.

Ahsoka laughed. Skywalkers. Always wanting to run before they could even stand.

"Let's try it again," Ahsoka said. "Aim for the head."

Ahsoka was only a little worried about how eagerly Leia did so, but it wasn't any different from the training that she'd received in the Jedi Temple. Learning instant kill points was one of the prerequisites to the more advanced lightsaber training they received further into their initiate training. It was as much to learn how to avoid them as much it was to learn how to hit them if needed, especially once the war came. Besides, if anyone came after Luke and Leia—especially when the reasons would likely have to do with their Force sensitivity and who their parents were—better that Leia learned to shoot to kill so she and brother could live free and uncorrupted another day. Luke—too sweet to want to have anything to do with something that could hurt someone—would drive the getaway speeder, the twins determined together when they had playfully planned a possible future escape. Neither had grasped the seriousness of what they were discussing, and Ahsoka silently prayed to the Force as she listened to them that such a day never came. She'd prepare them just in case anyway.

"Mama," Leia asked suddenly. "What's that vibrating?"

"Vibrating?" Ahsoka repeated. Her hand went to her comm. Nothing from there. Then she remembered that today she had her second comm on her—the one she used to contact Vader. That one was vibrating.

The only reason she had it on her was that it was Empire day. And to keep up the pretense that it was loyal to the Empire as a core planet, Alderaan made a big ado over the Empire celebrations. Like every year, Ahsoka used the palace's many hidden corridors and rooms to remain hidden but kept everything on her that she would need in case she suddenly had to flee the planet.

Soon, Luke and Leia would have to go with their handmaidens to make the appearances that were expected of them as wards of the House of Organa. It was only early morning right now, though, and because she knew that they both hated the celebrations, she'd decided to spend time with them to make up for it. She guessed that would have to be cut short because the only reason Vader would be comm'ing her first rather than sending a message was that it was an emergency.

Vader didn't give her a chance to say anything when she answered the comm. When his image appear above her device in the palm of her hand, he asked, "What intel have you gotten on Eriadu?"

Ahsoka resisted the instinct to tease him for his promptness. Not only had he not messaged her before he comm'd, but he was also wearing the suit. Nowadays, most of their communications were sans the suit. Combined with his abruptness—more than usual anyway—that signaled to Ahsoka that this was no time to joke.

"Nothing lately. If you're talking about the cell there, I haven't gotten any word of any trouble from them in a few weeks since I visited them and smoothed our… misunderstanding over."

A misunderstanding was putting it lightly. Though she tried to be gentle and fair, she'd been swift in her judgment. The punishment included an official censure and temporary probation of the cell's leadership, which included leaving one of her fulcrum agents there to observe their dealings. She was actually due another report from him in a few rotations or so.

A sound came out the voice modulator that might have been a scoff otherwise. Then Vader said, "Oh, you smoothed it over, alright. I just sent you something on your datapad."

Ahsoka reached in her pocket and tapped the notification on the screen. A breaking news video appeared on the flat screen. In big, bold, white, capital letters against a red background, the words "Terrorists Bomb Empire Day Celebrations on Eriadu." In the upper right-hand corner of the screen was the rogue-ish, human leader of the Eriadu cell with his dark blue eyes and matted locks of yellow-blonde hair and beads, looking more like the typical pirate. Ahsoka supposed that was the point of the picture, though.

"Kriff," Ahsoka muttered.

"Mama," Luke said absently, still reading through his manual, "That's a forbidden word."

Ahsoka blinked. She'd forgotten that the twins were there.

"Sorry, little ones," Ahsoka said, shaking her head. "We're going to have to cut things short today. Leave your things here and go find Song and Madison to get you ready for the celebrations today. I'll put everything away."

One of them, if not both, must have sensed the sudden gravity of the situation. That or her tone hadn't come out as cool and calm as it usually did. Either way, Ahsoka didn't get the usual protests she did from them when she had to usher them to doing something they didn't want to. Leia took off her earmuffs and turned the lock on the blaster while Luke closed his manual and dropped it in the corner with his pencil and the datapad he was taking notes on. Then Leia waited for Luke to catch up to her.

"Hi, Daddy," they both chorused.

Somehow, despite the intimidating nature of his suit, Vader's stance softened as he said, "Hello, Luke. Hello, Leia."

The two beamed at the acknowledgment before they both dashed out the room, whispering to each other along the way.

Ahsoka used to Force to make sure the entry was locked before getting back to the pressing matter at hand.

"I didn't authorize that attack. I didn't even know about it," she said immediately.

"I have already gathered that. I'm not calling you to accuse you of anything. I'm calling you to tell you and your rebellion to lay low for a few weeks, maybe even longer than that. Not only was this a high profile attack with heavy casualties on Empire Day, but it happened on Tarkin's home planet, and some of his family was caught up in the casualties. Palpatine and Tarkin are going to be out for blood, at least until this matter is handled. They've already blocked all communications to and from the planet."

Ahsoka agreed with the rebellion laying low for a while. The Alliance Ahsoka ran, while quiet and mostly discreet, was the largest and most organized rebellion threat to Palpatine's power. But there were others. Most of them doing little more than causing minor annoyances that the Empire allowed local planetary forces to handle like the People's Resistance in the Mid-Rim. Some of them, like the Inter-rim Army, were a bunch of pirates and terrorists that the Alliance had clashed with on a few occasions. But Palpatine made no distinction between them. They were all rebels. And when one of them got the attention of the Empire, none of them were safe.

Any group that showed dissent toward the Empire in the next coming weeks would be lumped into the category of whoever had bombed and killed innocent—_Mostly_. Tarkin's family was _far _from innocent—civilians on what was supposed to be a day of triumph of celebration.

As for herself, though…

"I've got to go to Eriadu," Ahsoka declared.

"You will do no such thing."

"I will, and you're not going to stop me. I've got to give my people a fair chance to explain what happened."

"Explain? It is very straightforward. They went rogue and planned and executed one of the biggest attacks on civilians since the inception of the Empire."

"You mean outside of the terror you reigned in your early years?" Ahsoka asked blandly. Her intention wasn't to be accusatory. Those years were what they were. But sometimes she had to remind Vader that the only difference between his own dark deeds and the deeds he was quick to punish others for was that his were Imperial sponsored. That and there was no one powerful enough to hold him accountable.

"Those were military operations."

Vader's response was just a second too slow for Ahsoka to believe her comment hadn't had its intended effect. Thus, she didn't argue that point with him any further.

"My people are being accused of a heinous crime. Regardless of whether or not they're guilty, I have a responsibility to deal with this. If I don't do anything, I'm not just giving Palpatine the ammunition he needs to turn people away from the rebellion, but I'm also setting a precedent that I don't try to hear my people out when I have the chance to," Ahsoka argued.

"You have no chance," Vader said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "The blocking communication was just the beginning. Before you could even get to Eriadu from wherever you are, it's going to be so blockaded that it might be easier safer for you to travel to Coruscant."

"You trained me for this. I can get through it."

"I trained you to be able to act in case you found yourself in an impossibly dire situation through no haphazard recklessness of your own. Or no more than normal, anyway. Not for you to voluntarily go alone on a guaranteed suicide mission."

Ahsoka couldn't argue with that. And it was one thing for her to go into such dangerous territory, but another thing entirely for her to ask any of her agents or soldiers to accompany her.

"You're headed there, though," Ahsoka suddenly said.

"I am not presumed dead, nor do I take on the persona of someone wanted by the Empire," Vader said in that terse tone he used when he was using all patience with her.

"No. I'm saying you could take me. To Eriadu. We'll make a rendezvous point on the way. You'll pick me up, and I'll go with you. Still dangerous, but not a suicide."

"No," came the flat response.

"Vader. I'm going to Eriadu. And either I'm going by myself, or you're taking me there."

"Or," Vader said slowly, in a dangerous tone, "you go to Eriadu, I intercept you, and keep you in holding in my flagship under guard until I'm done."

A few years ago, Ahsoka would have dared him, cut the call, and started prepping for her mission, taunting him to hurt her to get his way if he dared. She wasn't so cruel now.

"Look. I get it. Your job is to keep this Empire together long enough for us to beat Palpatine, and then you can reshape it however you want to. And I know what it looks like. It looks like my people went rogue. But how many times have things looked a certain way only for both of us to know there was more to the story. They at least deserve my benefit of the doubt."

"You are being ridiculous."

"It wasn't so ridiculous when you were giving it to me." She didn't have to tell him about what.

Vader paused a few cycles of mechanical breathing before saying, "That's different. I knew you were innocent."

"Did you?"

"I did. I _always_ knew it."

Always because he was one of the few who hadn't given her doubtful looks after everything was supposed to be said and done when she walked through the halls of the temple. And that was before she'd gone and made a name for herself by outright disobeying direct orders from the Council at a pace that rivaled her former master's.

Vader added, "You've been having trouble with these criminals for months now."

"That doesn't mean they don't deserve to be heard. That doesn't mean that they did this. Let me help you investigate. And if they really did this, I'll help you take them into Imperial detainment," Ahsoka offered.

A few more breathing cycles passed before some garbled sound came through the modulator, and Vader said, "I don't know why I ever wanted you as a Sith apprentice. You're too kind to people who don't deserve it."

"So, that's a yes?"

"I'll send you the coordinates," Vader finally said. "Only because I know you're going to go anyway, and you will end up not only needing me to save you but also ruining part of our plan to destroy Sidious. For the record, when this goes catastrophically wrong, I don't like this. I do not like this at all, Ahsoka."

He disconnected the comm.

Ahsoka got the coordinates for rendezvous a few minutes later as she was making her way back to the living quarters of the palace, the privacy of which meant she didn't have to exercise much caution. She found Breha first, in her dressing room getting ready for the day's festivities. Somehow, when Breha looked at her through the mirror at her vanity, she figured out that Ahsoka needed to talk to her.

"Can you give us a moment?" Breha asked as though she needed her handmaiden's permission.

"But milady. Your hair," one of them said.

"I'll help her with it," Ahsoka offered.

The two women nodded and quietly left the room. Ahsoka picked up Breha's brush and began brushing out any remaining curls that the comb her handmaiden ran through it had missed.

"You've certainly come a long way when it comes to human hair," Breha said.

Ahsoka laughed as she put the brush down and picked up the parting comb to part Breha's hair for the traditional braid she always wore on this day. Ahsoka always had a fascination with human hair since togruta were a hairless species (besides eyelashes). But she'd been hopeless with either of her children's hair at first. May taught her how to wash it and keep it soft and brush it when the twins were younger, but she was right back at square one as the twins got older. Especially when it came to Leia's hair. The handmaidens usually took care of it when she was gone, but when Ahsoka was on-planet, she liked to take care of the twins herself. Not for the first time when she was trying to figure out what to do with the girl's long hair did Ahsoka think it would have been better if Padmé had lived instead of her.

Breha, thankfully, took pity on Ahsoka and taught her how to brush and comb out Leia's hair and how to not tug on it too hard and cause her pain. Then Breha taught her a basic braid and sent her holonet videos of different ways she could braid Leia's hair up or pull it back.

As she began to do a four-strand braid on a lock of hair, Ahsoka said, "I've got to leave on an emergency mission in a few hours."

"Does it have to do with Eriadu?" Breha asked knowingly. At Ahsoka's questioning, Breha continued, "It's all over the news. I was hoping it would give us the excuse to cancel all celebrations. But Palpatine thinks doing so would give whoever was behind that attack what they wanted. To make us fear, to disrupt the peace and security."

Ahsoka recognized the tone as the one Breha used when she wanted to roll her eyes, but she was too well trained as a queen for that.

"I think it might have been one of ours. The Empire's blocked all communication on the planet, so I can't get anything to or from them to confirm, which means I have to go there myself," Ahsoka explained as she braided another section.

"It's probably easier for you to get on Coruscant right now."

"That's what Vader said," Ahsoka replied quietly.

"You spoke with him," Breha said, her tone a touch too gentle, the way it always was when she was trying to be subtle about her disapproval. Not that it was helping. Ahsoka already knew exactly what Breha thought of her dealings with Vader.

As far as Breha was concerned, Vader was little better than Ahsoka's verbally and physically abusive co-parent. Ahsoka could see how it appeared that way. But Ahsoka was woman enough to admit that sometimes she was just as guilty of goading Vader into a fight to take out some of her long-simmering anger—not just at Vader but at the galaxy. He was not only an accessible target but a safe one. There was no way she could hurt him, not too bad anyway. And they weren't pointing lightsabers at each other outside the battlefield anymore. Lightsaber duels were just how powerful Force users that were technically on opposite sides resolved disputes when all negotiations failed. Nothing personal. Not usually.

But she and Breha had this argument too many times in the last year and a half. Ahsoka had no hope that today she'd convince the woman anything other than what she already thought about the situation.

"Yeah. He's taking me to the planet to let me investigate," Ahsoka says.

"How did you talk him into that?"

"I…" Ahsoka trailed off.

She'd meant every word about why it was important for her to give the Eriadu cell the benefit of the doubt. Still, she hadn't expected it to change Vader's mind. She fully expected that she'd have to just show up, and he'd use the tractor beam of his destroyer to bring her into his flagship. Then they'd fight and argue until finally, he let her go just because he had no other choice in the matter. But something about what she said changed his mind for no apparent reason.

"I'm really not sure," Ahsoka finally said with a shrug.

Breha actually did roll her eyes that time.

Ahsoka sighed. "Come on, Breha. Vader's not that bad."

"Ahsoka, my friend, I ask this with all the love and respect in my heart for you. But are all Jedi this clueless?" the queen asked, her voice wry.

Ahsoka frowned as she piled the braids in an elegant knot at the top of Breha's head.

"Clueless about what?"

Breha scowled and muttered, "Never mind." Ahsoka wanted to press the matter further, but Breha continued. "So have you figured out how you're going to tell Luke and Leia that you're going to be off-world on their birthday?"

Ahsoka paused.

Kriff.

* * *

**AN: **As promised, the extra chapter. I have been looking forward to posting this arc for months. You're gonna love it. Watch.

Hope you enjoyed! Review please!


	34. Reminisce

**Chapter Thirty-Four: Reminisce**

Vader tuned out Tarkin's briefing for how they were going to weed out the suspected bombers on Eriadu. He knew the plan. He mostly agreed with it except for a few oversights that someone unfamiliar with executing guerilla war tactics would overlook. But Vader wasn't going to argue about them. These oversights would give Ahsoka the perfect covers to get to her people and investigate for herself precisely what happened. If anyone was suspicious as to his lack of insight, the obvious excuse was that this was Tarkin's home planet, his personal vendetta, and the emperor had given the man jurisdiction over this matter, only sending Vader to make sure a rogue Force-sensitive was not involved.

He sensed the moment Ahsoka dropped out of hyperspace but continued to pretend to listen to Tarkin's supposedly inspirational tirade about stopping terrorists. Vader barely resisted the urge to groan. This was worse than the stang he'd had to sit through in the Senate during the Clone Wars. And at least back then, they'd had _some_ righteous bearing to stand on. Though Vader couldn't say he agreed the civilian casualties were worth it, he also couldn't say he felt any significant dismay at the casualties suffered by Tarkin's family.

The man's family earned their fortune supposedly conquering the wilderness that was Eriadu a millennia ago. In actuality, his ancestors and a group of colonizers settled on the planet, wiped out the native sentients, and built their fortune on the backs of slave labor that they were forced to rebrand once they joined the Republic. It was little wonder Tarkin and his family had been so quick to support Palpatine's rise and his policies. It was even less a wonder that Tarkin had been so ready and willing to brand as a traitor a non-human girl who had done nothing but serve the Republic.

Vader pushed the thoughts aside. More and more lately, he was having trouble not dwelling on things that would take him down a path that caused him to lose his restraint. There would be time for revenge later. Right now, he could respect that he and Tarkin temporarily had the same goal and respect the man's military competence.

Once Tarkin was finished, Vader informed the man he'd arrive in Eriadu's orbit within half a rotation, disconnected the holo, and made his way to a hanger that he'd ordered cleared out hours ago. He then watched as Ahsoka's ship landed, and in short order, as she disembarked from her ship.

"You're late," Vader pointed out.

"I know," Ahsoka said with a sigh as she fell into step next to him. "But Luke and Leia held me up. They guilt-tripped me so hard because I'm going to miss their birthday. And I expect that from Leia, but even Luke—you know how sweet and forgiving he is—wouldn't let up." Ahsoka huffed. "Manipulative brats. They made it clear I owe them big time. And the only way to repay it is to take them to that popular planet-wide amusement park in the Mid-Rim. Do you know how long the waiting list to that place is?"

"Join the club," Vader muttered. He'd only ever been present for the twins' second birthday.

"They're a lot more understanding with you, though. You're never with them on their birthday, to begin with. I miss one, and they decide to make me feel like the worst mother in the galaxy," Ahsoka bemoaned.

Vader took a few breathing cycles to talk himself out of the defensive comment to Ahsoka's tactless statement. This was a battle he did not have to pick with her. Especially since she had not meant it to be cruel, only to state an accepted truth. Besides, it wasn't her he was angry at. It was himself. Either he kept them safe or spent time with them. Vader would prioritize the twins' safety every time, and in his presence, the twins were in the most danger. If anything, he was jealous that Ahsoka didn't have to make that choice. And it often made her a convenient target for him to take his anger out on.

Ahsoka suddenly paused in step next to him before turning to look at Vader.

"I wasn't trying to be mean by pointing that out, by the way. I was just making a point."

Her expression gave away her guilt and sincerity, helping to quell Vader's anger.

He turned to her, smiling just a little behind the mask as he said, "I know."

She smiled just slightly, something warm managing to bloom across their mostly mutually ignored bond, penetrating the darkness he habitually submerged it in to keep her from his master's detection.

She fell back into step with him again and said, "Okay. Brief me about what's happening on Eriadu."

They spent the next hour getting her caught up her about the attack and Tarkin's plan, Ahsoka's frown only sharpened the more she learned before. Finally, she said, "I hate to say this before I actually make contact with them, but I really think the Eriadu rebel cell did this."

"What makes you so certain?"

"They told me about this plan. It wasn't really a plan then but an idea. Though the Tarkins rule that planet with their money, the people there hate the Tarkins and the Empire. They've suffered from poverty for a long time while his family continues to get rich off of them and the business grants they get from being in Palpatine's favor. They told me they wanted to remind the Empire, the Tarkins in particular, that they're still here and that they won't be silenced. I sympathized with them. But I told them it was a stand I couldn't support. Not just because we're still building the weapons and manpower to do it, but also because their ideas risked too many innocent lives. I'm all for any means necessary, but taking a stand isn't worth taking the lives of those who haven't volunteered to actively fight in this conflict. Especially when many of them will be on our side," Ahsoka explained. "I thought I mostly succeeded in talking them out of it. To give me two or three more years to strengthen the rebellion to a point where we could wage a war that we might be able to win. I even left a Fulcrum agent behind just in case. Apparently, they weren't so placated."

"So can we skip the part where you let them explain themselves and jump right to the part where you help me find them and apprehend them?" Vader asked.

Ahsoka gave him an unimpressed look. "No. Everything looks like it points to my guys being responsible for this, but it's just as likely this is a false flag operation by the emperor to instill fear for the rebellion in key systems and hinder our progress. That and sow distrust between me and the people who help me."

"But for anyone to know that plan that would mean—"

"The rebellion might have been compromised. At least on Eriadu," Ahsoka admitted.

"At worst, everywhere."

Ahsoka shook her head. "No. Standard protocol is that no one cell knows just how far the rebellion network spreads. They're given one contact. To one of my Fulcrum agents. And all of them report to Diya, who reports directly to me. That way, if one gets caught, it's chalked up to a local rebellion, and the larger one is safe."

"Then why the insistence on coming here at all? If this is the emperor's doing, he may just be trying to weed you out."

"That's the point. It's only a maybe. One day the rebellion won't always be in the shadows. And when it does come out, I'd like for people to know we're different from Palpatine's Empire. That we're fair and just, even if it means having to come down on our own. They're more likely to believe the rebellion will stand up for them in the public if they also know I did it when there was no one to see. I know it's risky. But it's the right thing to do," Ahsoka declared.

"That was probably a more rousing speech than the collective of the speeches made in the senate since the Empire's rise," Vader commented.

She gave him that look again. "Stop being an ass."

"I wasn't."

He'd been present during enough Senate sessions to know that most of the senators that remained only remained because of the power and access that it gave them. Accordingly, the many speeches he'd painstakingly sat through reflected that, especially on Empire day. A bunch of empty platitudes, pledging loyalty to the Empire and swearing to help put down rebellions that threatened the peace the emperor had so graciously ushered the galaxy into after the destruction wrought by the Clone War. Frequently bored out of his mind during these speeches, Vader amused himself by predicting what the theme of the speeches for the year would be. This year would probably be courage in the face of those who inspired terror. The senators with rebellion ties would probably use the occasion to cleverly implicate Vader and the emperor in that terror. He'd have to check later.

He hadn't seen Ahsaka's passionate determination, though subdued, to do the right thing for the sake of it despite the risk since one of Padmé's last speeches. Vader supposed it shouldn't be surprising. Ahsoka always had a strong sense of what was right and wrong, and it seldom failed to clash with his unforgiving and merciless brand of justice. Once she figured out something was the right thing to do, there was little he could do to deter her. Hence why he'd decided it would be easier to just take her to Eriadu than refuse. As strongly as he sensed she felt, she would have gone anyway, and he would have ended up having to rescue her.

Some things, Vader mused, would never change.

For some reason, his response caught her off guard because the chevrons of her lekku brightened in what was clearly surprise.

"What?" he demanded.

"Nothing," Ahsoka replied dismissively as she returned to her regular coloring. "So am I confined to your quarters for the trip?"

"No. You have free reign of the ship except for the bridge."

"Why not the bridge?"

"Because Palpatine's spy is one of the techs currently on duty there, but he's contained for now. And I have one of my own spies on him. Other than that, everyone else is loyal and knows not to ask who you are."

"Why not just kill the spy?"

"Because then, Palpatine will know for sure I'm up to something and will send someone to watch me that's even more of an inconvenience." Like sending one of his adepts to "assist" him in tracking down Jedi and rebels or whatever justification he came up with.

Sure that Ahsoka would find something to do, Vader left her to her own devices while he tended to matters that needed to be solidified before they arrived in the Eriadu system. What he hadn't expected but probably should have was to find her hours later arm wrestling with the clone troopers who had downtime before they dropped out of hyperspace. When Vader found her, she was going against three troopers at a time, looking like she was hardly even trying to keep them from slamming her arm down. The troopers not participating in the current match were gathered around cheering the group on.

"Come on, boys," she said with a grin. "You guys can do better than that."

"You're cheating."

"Nope, Stealth. You're just a weakling," Ahsoka shot back before finally she slammed all three arms going against her down.

There were a mixture of groans and cheers as her opponents grudgingly but good-naturedly shook her hand.

"Alright. Who wants next round?" she asked.

"You've made your point, Lady. You're strong. Let's do something where you can't show off your supernatural strength."

Vader decided then to make his presence known. All the troopers snapped to attention, while Ahsoka turned around.

"At ease," he directed to the troops before turning to Ahsoka. "We'll be dropping out of hyperspace shortly."

"Already?" she asked before turning back to the troopers. "Guess we'll have to put an end to this competition."

There were a few groans amongst the troopers before Stealth asked with a smirk, "Finish up later?"

"Maybe. I don't know if I'm coming back any time soon. But definitely if I do," Ahsoka assured before turning to leave with Vader. Once they were in the hall, she asked, "I didn't get them into any trouble, did I?"

"What kind of commander do you think I am?"

"A ruthless and cruel one if the rumors are to be believed."

The rumors about him lacked any nuance. But that's how Vader wanted it to be. That's what he wanted the emperor to hear about him. That he was impulsive and quick to anger with little interests or caring for anyone's life. He thought Ahsoka knew that to some extent, though, Vader couldn't particularly blame her if she didn't. He could admit that sometimes he could be downright cruel to her when she made herself a convenient target for his anger.

"The remaining clone troopers do their job better than the ill-equipped and poorly trained men that come out of Palpatine's stormtrooper program. Not to mention the clones are in short supply. I wouldn't just go around killing them for what they decide to do in their downtime. Besides, the clones are loyal. We'll need them to fight off the moffs that I can't persuade to my side."

Vader sensed her hesitating about something, arms crossed and eye-markings furrowed as she debated with herself.

"Do you know what happened to Rex?" she finally asked.

The subject of her inquiry informed him that her hesitance hadn't been because she feared his reaction but because she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer. Both hoping and dreading that he was alive, but also hoping and dreading that he was dead. It might have been a perplexing contradiction of emotions if Vader hadn't experienced it himself. After she disappeared when the Empire rose, he'd waited for but hadn't particularly looked forward to his inevitable confrontation with his former student. He'd both wished to find out she was dead and that she was alive, but dreaded the consequences of either revelation.

He and Ahsoka likely knew the same things about when they last saw the commander. At some point, Ahsoka had been assigned the mission to take back Mandalore and capture Maul after coming across a tip during an intelligence-gathering mission and running into Bo-Katan along the way. With his former self spying for the Council on Coruscant, a company of the 501st had been sent ahead in preparation to retake the planet. Before the mission could officially get underway, Vader pledged himself to Sidious, the Order had fallen, and Rex had gotten lost in the chaos. Officially, Rex was listed as MIA and presumed dead. Vader, however, had a feeling the clone was far from dead. If he put just a modicum of energy into the task, he was even sure he knew where to find the trooper.

He wouldn't get Ahsoka's hopes up about it.

Finally, Vader replied, "No. I do not."

Ahsoka didn't say anything to that, and Vader determinedly ignored the grief she was trying and failing to hide from him. Another of the few friends she had likely lost in the chaos of the aftermath of the Clone Wars. Another thing for her to hold him responsible for.

He took her to an empty room in his quarters where a disguise lay; heavy black trousers, tunics, and wraps to go around her head lay.

"I'm assuming that's my disguise," Ahsoka said. "What am I supposed to be?"

"An inquisitor, accompanying me on the suspicion that there may have been a Jedi or other Force-sensitive individual involved." It helped that the emperor wanted him to rule out that possibility, to begin with. "There's a lightsaber over there for you to finish the look."

As she inspected the disguise, she asked absently, "How long has it been since we were on a mission together? On the same side? Since right after I was knighted?"

"Likely."

The Council had sought to split them up in the hopes that his former self wouldn't encourage Ahsoka's simmering fury and increasing rebellion. To them, her behavior had been little more than the result of an attachment that was getting out of hand. They hadn't comprehended until much later that the girl's behavior had nothing to do with his former self's influence and everything to do with the dismissive way they had treated her. When the apparent attempts to keep them apart had done nothing but made Ahsoka's reckless behavior worse, so much so that even he started to worry, the Council gave up and implored him to try to talk some sense into her. He imagined if he hadn't destroyed them, the Council would have happily let him tag along on the Mandalore mission just to be assured that their mutual protectiveness of each other would keep both their recklessness in check.

"We were probably both on our way to being kicked out the Order, huh? As overtly problematic as we'd both become?" Ahsoka asked with a smirk.

As specific as her question had been, Vader wondered if she'd somehow picked up on his recollection.

Before he could answer her or decide whether to ask if she'd picked up on his thoughts, she grinned and said, "This will be just like old times then."

Vader both sincerely hoped it would not and anticipated that it would be.

* * *

**AN: **The next chapter as promised before going back to our regular update schedule. Hopefully, the last episode of the Clone Wars doesn't kill me.

Wanna know my favorite part of this? Writing Vader's annoyance with all the rousing, inspirational talk and speeches. I sympathize with how unmoved, unimpressed, and bored he is when it comes to that stuff. I am exactly the same way in real life. Vader's and Ahsoka's interactions were fun too, but that's a given.

Hope you enjoyed! Review Please!


	35. Pursuit

**Chapter Thirty-Five: Pursuit**

"Ahsoka," Vader began, tone conveying a clear warning.

"I know," Ahsoka said, her voice coming out garbled as a result of the voice piece under mask and wraps of her disguise. "Let you do all the talking with the Imperials while I just stand behind you and look threatening."

Despite the fact that her face was covered, Ahsoka gave Vader a cheeky grin. By the mental nudge reinforcing his earlier warnings, Ahsoka was sure Vader knew she was grinning anyway. He turned to face the ramp of the shuttle, the 501st, now colloquially known as Vader's Fist, having already descended down the ramp ahead of them. Without warning, Vader started his descent, but having a decade of following him when he decided he was ready to move, Ahsoka started just in time with him. She stopped in time with him when he met Tarkin after walking through the path his Fist had gone before him.

Ahsoka tuned out the conversation, not caring about whatever respectful pleasantries both men were going over with each other, and surveyed the wreckage of the attack from almost five days ago. Most of the bodies had already been cleared and carried away, but the previously beautiful square was little more than ruins. And though she could easily sense the remnants of the chaotic emotions from the attack, she didn't have the gift of sensing the echoes in such a way that she could see what happened. Whatever there was to find out from the remains of the attack, she learned it all in the briefing Vader gave her.

Taking her focus off the ruins, she scanned the local authorities instead. After a few moments, she spotted a pale-haired human male with green eyes and a thin nose. While Vader continued his conversation, Ahsoka made her way over.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"Yes. You can," Ahsoka said, holding out her hand and showing off her Fulcrum insignia on the flat screen of a discreet wrist comm.

His lips thinned, and Ahsoka got the feeling that he wanted to run away.

"If you try to run, the only one you'll be hurting is yourself," Ahsoka said simply. She was, of course, the one that had just arrived with Darth Vader.

"How do you have that symbol?" he asked lowly.

"The Fulcrum has agents and spies where you'd least expect them. Even Lord Vader's special task force to find Jedi and other Force users." That was only half true. She did have agents and spies in many Imperial task forces, security teams, and military, but none among Vader's inquisitors. Even if they weren't partners and she had tried, they would have quickly been weeded out. This spy didn't need to know that. "Shouldn't be much of a surprise considering you're a captain in the local security forces of this planet. And you're just the one to give me the information I need to give the Fulcrum the information they want about this mission."

"And that is?"

"They," Ahsoka began slowly because run-of-mill members of individual cells weren't supposed to know who the Fulcrum really was, "want to make sure that the Eriadu cell had nothing to do with this."

"And what do you need to know from me?"

"The coordinates to your cell's current base of operations."

"Why should I trust you? You're with Vader."

"Vader's handled. He'll be following a wild goose chase from a tip I planted about a Jedi being involved. While he's occupied, I'll go to the base," Ahsoka explained. The only thing she didn't say was that Vader already knew she planted that tip to give him an alibi for the Emperor.

The man hesitated, apprehension fouling his presence. It couldn't have been because of her disguise. Once she showed him her insignia, he should have been relieved, which meant he had something to hide. It didn't make Ahsoka feel any better about all this.

With sensitive instincts honed from years of war and hiding, Ahsoka didn't need to rely on the Force to know to raise her lightsaber, the red one Vader let her borrow, to deflect the blaster bolt that came from the officer. She behind a fallen piece of rubble to protect her from the brunt of the explosion from the charge the man threw.

A powerful Force wind cleared the debris cloud, and Ahsoka came from behind the rubble, eyes immediately finding her spy retreating in his local security provided speeder.

"And this is precisely why I didn't want you to come here alone. Five minutes on-site and already things are exploding," Vader rumbled from beside her, after directing his troopers ahead and after the suspect.

"What's your personal record? Five seconds?" Ahsoka shot back as a transport pulled up next to them, and they climbed aboard. "And please tell me you told them not to use lethal force. He's our only lead right now."

"How do you not know the base of operations of your own people?" Vader asked as he took control of the transport, after which he gave the order through the comm in one of his gauntlets.

"Because I don't think they're there. I'm almost positive they moved in anticipation of the Empire or me. I'm not sure which one it is yet," Ahsoka replied, trying and failing to find the speeder her spy fled in. "Please tell me your Fist has their eyes on this guy."

"Affirmative, sir," one of the troopers piloting their transport said in response. Ahsoka wondered just how much Vader's legion of troops had figured out about her connection with this mission and her disguise.

Ahsoka caught sight of the fleeing security speeder first. It moved with much more ease and finesse than their bigger transport and managing to avoid damaging civilians and civilian property in the process. Something their transport wasn't doing.

"Can we at least try to avoid civilian casualties?" Ahsoka asked.

"It's either try harder to avoid the civilians or catch the only suspect that may be able to lead us to the culprit behind this attack," Vader replied.

"I just think it's very ironic that we're hurting civilians while trying to catch the guy that may have been part of a terrorist attack partly because he killed a bunch of civilians to get the attention of the Empire."

"There's no pleasing you."

"I never knew you were trying."

"I'm not. But I do make the attempt to pick my battles with you."

There was no cruelty behind the words or even the sarcasm that Vader tended to use when he was fed up with her but not particularly angry. If Ahsoka didn't know any better, she'd say it sounded resigned. Maybe fond. An idea reinforced by a vague warmth that bloomed across their mutually ignored bond, managing to penetrate the thick, cold darkness that Vader usually had it cloaked in. That the feeling, whatever it was, managed to penetrate the darkness at all was an oddity in and of itself. Maybe it was their proximity.

Deciding to continue to ignore the oddity, Ahsoka replied wryly, "You're doing a fantastic job," as they entered a residential area with huge mansions but a lot less traffic.

They caught up with the team Vader had sent ahead, chasing and shooting the lone local authority speeder, which was pulling all the evasive getaway maneuvers that her high-level rebellion spies learned.

"Kriff," Ahsoka muttered as she pulled out her blaster to help. "I never thought my recruitment training would ever come back to bite me in the ass."

"Now you know how I feel," said Vader.

Sight locked on the speeder, Ahsoka aimed her blaster outside the transport, and, once she felt the urging from the Force, made one shot at the renegade spy. The speeder spun out of control into the immaculate shrubbery bordering one of the mansions. The spy didn't waste any time getting out the speeder and running across the front yard and into the back, troopers, Vader, and Ahsoka right behind him. As they ran across the vast expanse, Ahsoka thought it would be an insult to call it just a backyard. More like a private park or farm. After about three hundred yards or so, they came upon an old fashioned wire fence that served as a barrier between the yard and the dense wildlands and forests of Eriadu beyond it.

Faced with his pursuers and the wildlands, Ahsoka wasn't entirely surprised when the man practically ran up the fence, jumped into the wildlands of the other side, and disappeared into the thick grass and foliage. The feat would have been incredible for a regular sentient human, but not for someone used to seeing the feats of Jedi.

"He's as good as dead out there," said one of the local security officers that had come with them as everyone stopped at the fence.

"How so?" Ahsoka asked.

"That's the wildlands. It's got predators and beasts so untamed, no one has been able to tame it since the first Eriadu settlers."

Somewhere even the planet's own settlers wouldn't venture? That sounded like the perfect place for a rebel base…

"I think we may have found out where our rebels are," Vader said and then asked, "How far do these wildlands go and what's on the other side?"

"Nothing but wildlands for hundreds of miles, at least."

Vader ignored him and turned to his captain. "Secure the area and set up an aerial patrol. Just in case he comes back out. We'll follow him."

That said, Vader made one Force-induced leap over the high fence, and Ahsoka followed. It wasn't very long before they were far enough into the dense grass, trees, and foliage that if they looked behind them, they could no longer see out to fence they'd climbed over. Not long after that, the only thing even Ahsoka could hear was the swampland. Figuring it was safe enough, Ahsoka unwrapped the wrappings from around her head and lifted her goggles to sit on her forehead.

She understood why the human settlers of the planet had decided this place was more trouble than it was worth to settle. Her biological hunter instincts had her on edge, the instincts that let her know that she wasn't the only hunter present. Instincts that made her wonder what the early non-native humans of this planet were thinking a thousand years ago when they decided to migrate here. For a species with a lot of biological disadvantages, humans sure were ambitious and adventurous…

As they walked further and into a swamp where even the most shallow paths brought water almost to her knees, the sounds of the ecosystem began to fade. Finally, the only sounds were the sloshing of Vader's heavy tread through the swamp and his mechanical breathing.

"Vader, you need to take off your mask," Ahsoka stated as the uneasy feeling of the hunter being hunted came over her.

"Why?"

"Because you're making too much noise. Don't you feel how still and quiet everything is? Everything except—"

Ahsoka didn't finish. Both she and Vader lit their lightsabers at the same time, half a second before a wet predator several times larger than Vader with scaly skin and muddy brown swamp leaves hanging from it rose from the swamp with screeching hiss. The screech echoed through Ahsoka montrals and discombobulated her long enough that she was distracted when the beast lunged for Vader. By the time she gained her bearings, Vader was in the midst of trying to kill the creature with his lightsaber. But the thick muddy brown leaves on it almost acted as a barrier that prevented Vader from killing it without getting much closer, at which point he'd make himself vulnerable to the swamp beasts' sharp foreclaws.

Finally, he gave up on using his saber and rose his hand to forcefully subdue the beast with the Force, only for two more massive beasts to raise up behind him with their own screeches. Not taken off guard by the sound this time, Ahsoka leaped into the air, landed on the scaly head one of the beasts, and pierced it at the top with her lightsaber. She'd expected the beast to fall, but what she hadn't expected in its dying throes was for it to make another screeching cry. As it thrashed around in its dying pains, it managed to throw Ahsoka off and into the swamp water. As it fell, it swiped a clawed hand—or paw or whatever—at Vader who was using the Force to subdue the other two beasts, both thrashing in their own death throes from his attack. Ahsoka Force-pushed Vader out the way, but the claw still managed to nick him on his right side. He hardly seemed bothered by it, though, as he stood in the swamp water over the three dead beasts.

"There is no way your spy made it out of here alive," Vader declared.

"My spy doesn't have the loudest pacemaker in the galaxy along with heavy footsteps," Ahsoka shot back.

"Well, they're dead n—" Vader cut himself off at the sound of another screech, the swamp shaking with simultaneous movement.

"Come on," Ahsoka said, deciding to head in the opposite direction of most of the shaking. "And take that kriffing mask off."

"Already ahead of you," Vader said as he followed behind her to get away from the beasts, the sound of his pacemaker gone, his voice no longer masked by his modulator.

Once he caught up with her, he yanked her to the left, pulling them into a thick grassy brush closer to drier land of the swamp. He knelt down, pulling her close in his grasp. A few short moments later, four more of the vicious swamp monsters appeared with a loud screech. Ahsoka got the impression of anger from the beasts as well as something that felt mourning. Certainly, they weren't sentient. But the creatures were smarter than most non-sentient beings, and they were out to avenge their fallen brethren. The beasts passed by their hiding spot and continued to head away from them, further into the swamp. Neither Ahsoka nor Vader dared to do anything until the ground stopped shaking from their movements.

Finally, when they were sure the beasts were long gone, Vader said, "It's getting dark. We're not finding rebels tonight. If your rebel really went to his base, an extraction might make them risk fleeing."

"I agree, but I'm not particularly keen on camping out on banks of a swamp," Ahsoka replied.

Vader didn't answer, but she did feel the cold reach of his Force powers extend around them, like feelers getting a lay of the land. It must be a new power, Ahsoka thought. Goodness knew Vader always seemed to be developing new and unique ways to use the Force. A few years ago, her Force signature would have balked at the extension of his power. But she'd learned long ago how to determine when the extension of his powers was dangerous and when it was benign. This was the latter. And in some ways, it was even familiarly comforting. Not so different from a mission where Anakin reached out with his senses during the Clone War while she was still following him across the galaxy as his padawan. Only back then, she hadn't been as acutely aware of his Force signature as she was now. Hadn't comprehended the magnitude of his powers because he was always restraining himself. It was almost disappointing when he retreated his Force signature.

"There's a place we can hide out on drier land to the west of here," he said, standing them to their feet. "It's about an hour's walk."

"Will you be okay that long in this kind of place without your mask?" Ahsoka asked. Not only was he facing unfiltered air but also air thick with humidity.

"I'm fine," he said dismissively.

It's when he started forward that Ahsoka realized something.

"Vader," she said, stopping his stride before it could begin. "You can let go of me now."

His gaze fell to the arm that was still losing holding her from where he'd pulled her into their hiding spot earlier. He considered it before letting her go and continuing his earlier stride and up the muddy bank to lead them to their shelter for the night.

Ahsoka didn't follow immediately, instead tilting her head to consider Vader. He seemed… different lately. And because Vader was just as out of touch with changes in himself as he'd been when he called himself a Jedi, Ahsoka wasn't sure he even realized his behavior was strange. Like on his flagship earlier when she'd accused him of being an ass, and he'd admitted he wasn't trying to be. Even when he was showing a rare moment of kindness, he always found a way to selfishly play it off. Certainly, he'd never admit to it. He definitely didn't go out of his way to make sure she knew he was giving her a kindness.

"You must have an inexplicable desire to become the dinner of those swamp beasts because you're still standing there instead of doing the sensible thing and following me to the shelter you were just complaining about lacking," Vader said grumpily.

"Now that's the Vader I'm used to," Ahsoka muttered to herself, shaking her head of her earlier distractions as she followed him.

* * *

**AN: **The season finale of the Clone Wars broke me, y'all! I just cannot. Those last four minutes or so. So I'm going to keep playing in my little sandbox where things are less tragic and eventually I'll get my happy ending. Also, Ahsoka Tano is the best female star wars character ever (if not the best star wars character) and that's a hill I will die on! Don't at me! Go argue with your uncle!

On a serious note though, the pacing of the Clone Wars has always helped me with writing parts of this story. A lot of episodes and scenes are very "hit it and quit it," and they work really well. They don't drag a lot of stuff out and sometimes when I feel like I need to drag things out, I realize that I really don't and it helps me get chapters like this one out.

Anywho, the next chapter is probably my favorite chapter of this arc, and I think a lot of you will like it too. And I could be persuaded to put it up early. Like... Some time Saturday or Sunday instead of the scheduled Monday. Maybe? But that's up to you guys.

Hope you enjoyed! Review Please!


	36. Reasons

**Chapter Thirty-Six: Reasons**

Despite his assurance to Ahsoka that he would be fine without his mask, Vader hadn't even been sure he could make the trek to the hollow tree trunk that he'd found for their shelter. He'd been gaining back his respiratory endurance without the suit slowly but surely, but that was in controlled environments with a ventilator and his med droid nearby. Indeed, he'd had no intention of ever testing his stamina on a mission any time soon. But his current predicament necessitated that unless he wanted to spend all night running from predators.

Vader was pleasantly surprised that he was able to endure better than he expected, and he probably would have endured better were it not for the painfully, stinging gash in his side. Halfway to their hiding spot, it began to zap away at his endurance, and he'd channeled the pain into the dark side to give him strength and stay the need for him to rest. The temperature dropping and the humidity drastically lessening along the way helped.

When they finally found the hollow trunk, Ahsoka helped him look for something that would be large enough to block the opening. By the time he used the Force to shift a large fallen tree in front of the opening, he all but collapsed in the corner from the exertion.

"You're not okay," Ahsoka stated.

"I'm fine," Vader grumbled in response, hating that she was keen enough to notice his weakness despite trying to hide it.

"You're not."

"I'm—"

"For just right now, can we stop pretending that you didn't use to be Anakin Skywalker and that I didn't see you in worse conditions than this at some point during the Clone Wars," Ahsoka asked bluntly. "I didn't think you were weak then, and I don't think you're weak now."

Vader gave her what he hoped was a dark look, but that probably look pretty pathetic given his weakness right now. The unimpressed look Ahsoka gave him in return told him that he was probably right. Either that or she knew he wouldn't do anything to her despite it, even if he could find the strength to.

"Whatever," he finally grumbled as he sagged more against the barked walls.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes and shook her head as she began to strip off the wet layers of her disguise until she was wearing only the tank top and shorts she'd worn beneath it. Then she took off the utility belt with her lightsabers on it and knelt down in front of the pile of stones she'd collected earlier. She then cleverly used one of her sabers to heat them up and then put them in a pile in a hollow she'd dug up to heat up the small space.

"Now that we won't freeze to death, get out that suit and take off your tunic so I can look at that cut."

It wasn't that cold, but Ahsoka always was more sensitive to colder temperatures.

He did as she suggested without protest. Once he was done, he angled himself so she could inspect the gash in his side.

"It's not long, but that's pretty deep," she said as she dug into one of the waterproof pouches on her belt for first aid supplies. "I'm going to have to stitch it up."

"You can see well enough for that?" Vader asked. It wasn't totally dark, not with the light of two of Eriadu's three moons streaming through small openings in the hollow, but it was dark enough.

"My species can see in the dark better than yours can," Ahsoka said as she cleaned the site of the gash.

Right.

She worked in silence after that, using some kind of paste to numb the area some before she sewed his skin back together. He leaned back against the wall to rest his eyes but didn't let himself fall asleep even though he was exhausted. There was no telling what other predators were in these damn wildlands, and the extra seconds it would take for him to wake could be the difference between fleeing and being something's dinner.

"That should do it," Ahsoka said when she was done. "Still, if we don't find the rebels tomorrow, you should call us an evac to get us out of here."

"So certain still that the rebels are hiding here?" he asked as he put his tunic back on.

"Why not? We're spending the night. Besides, these wildlands are the perfect place to hide out until everything dies down. If my spy hadn't inadvertently led us here, we would have never thought to look some place so uninhabitable. We've been thinking of using the same logic to find places for a consolidated rebel base. Jungles. Frigid planets," Ahsoka explained while putting her things away.

"So, you've instilled the same lack of self-preservation in your subordinates as you have?"

"You fought a duel on a lava river—and _then _built a fortress there," Ahsoka deadpanned.

He hated when she had a point, and she knew he knew it based on the smugness he sensed from her at his lack of response.

Ahsoka then huddled in her own corner, rubbing her hands up and down her arms as her burgundy lips got a purple hue to them that would be concerning if she were human. But her lips always got more purple in them below a certain temperature, even when there was no danger of hypothermia. She lit her lightsaber again to reheat the rocks.

The third time she got ready to reheat the rocks an hour later, Vader huffed and said, "You can either do that all night or do the sensible thing and rest next to me instead of huddling in your corner. I'd prefer the latter because I'm never going to get any rest if you keep lighting your lightsaber all night."

Ahsoka looked at him like he was the predator they were hiding from. Before Vader could remark on it, she made her way over to sit next to him before slowly leaning toward him for warmth. She must have really liked the warmth because she very quickly got over her hesitancy and practically curled her entire upper body onto his chest. Just like his former self used to let her on chilly nights during the Clone Wars while camping out for days and weeks to ambush an enemy or while waiting for an evac.

"You needed me to keep you warm back then just as much as I needed you to keep me warm. You just wouldn't admit it. Just like you won't now," Ahsoka replied aloud.

Like all her observations that might be true, he didn't respond to either confirm or deny it. And like always, he sensed her smug satisfaction at having outwitted him. It didn't matter. It proved nothing.

For the umpteenth time in months and the third time that Vader was aware of that day, something warm bloomed across their old bond; again managing to penetrate the darkness Vader usually kept it submerged in. With nothing more pressing to worry about for the moment, Vader decided to inspect it. He seldom uncovered the bond from the icy depths of his power in order to keep Sidious fooled into thinking he had no personal attachments except his master. But either he or Ahsoka had to be doing _something_ for the bond to keep blooming to life despite his precautions. And it had to have been something recent because he'd never had this problem before.

He withdrew the darkness from around their link enough so he could mentally reach across to inspect his end of it, not realizing that Ahsoka had done the same on her end until they met in the middle. The same warmth bloomed across the bond again, this time unhindered by the darkness that usually covered it. Vader wasn't so emotionally out of touch that he didn't recognize it.

It took Ahsoka a while longer.

"Vader, what was that?"

"That was…" he began and then trailed off. His hesitation was long enough for Ahsoka to catch up.

"_Oh, no_," she gasped. She then sat up to look at him and repeated, "No, no, no, no… No! _You_ have a crush on _me_."

Trust her to always catch him off guard with what came out her mouth.

"I—what? That did _not_ come from me. That was you."

"Why would I like you like that?"

"Why would I?" he shot back.

"I don't know. But it explains why you've been acting so strange," Ahsoka said as she moved away from him, which wasn't far considering how confined their hollow was.

"Strange?"

Ahsoka didn't answer him as she dramatically covered her face with her hands and said, "It takes you seven years to get over Padmé's death enough to like someone else in a romantic way, and you want another scandalous relationship? One probably more scandalous than the first? What is it with you and scandalous relationships?"

"There's nothing with me and scandalous relationships. Whatever that was over the bond came from you," Vader shot back.

Truthfully, Vader wasn't sure where whatever that was in the Force between them had stemmed from. And it was impossible to know when it had started considering that they both generally ignored the bond.

Except, they didn't ignore it. How often had she nudged him across it when they spent time together out of annoyance or smugness or even fury? How often had he done the same? And when had she started being able to pick up on his thoughts so much that she responded to them as though he'd said them aloud? Not even his former self had been that in sync with her if he wasn't actively trying.

Ahsoka tried to give him a skeptical look, but it was tainted by her own uncertainty. Good to know he wasn't the only one.

After a few moments of staring at each other in the dark, Vader finally replied, "Kriff."

Ahsoka sighed. "Tell me about it."

"Being dramatic about it isn't going to do us any favors. You are blowing this out of proportion."

"When it comes to you, I can never blow things out of proportion enough," came her dry response. "Regardless, you need to stop this."

"I need to stop nothing. This is all you."

He sensed a response about to come from her before she stopped herself and sighed. Then she said, "Okay. Let's just assume for now that it's both of us." Before Vader could adamantly reject that notion, Ahsoka continued, "There's this show my agents like to catch up on between missions. Something called _Thirteen Reason Why_. You and I are about to come up with a list of Thirteen Reasons Why Not, and maybe it will nullify whatever… insanity this is, regardless of which one of us it's coming from. Nip it right in the bud before it can become anything else. And it'll give us something to do because neither of us is going to sleep any time soon now."

There was no way Ahsoka was so naïve that she really thought coming up with a stupid list of reasons would deter whichever of them this feeling between them was coming from. That's not at all how this worked. He should know. He'd spent years drowning himself in the dark side of the Force trying to deny and numb the sensations of his own feelings. It only led to insanity and a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering that even the dark side of the Force didn't require to access the depths of the power it could grant, though Sidious certainly wanted him to believe otherwise.

He didn't have the energy to argue with Ahsoka, though. He supposed he would humor her.

"Fine. Number one. You're a Jedi."

Expectedly, she responded, "I'm not a Jedi anymore."

"Your way is in direct opposition to the Sith way. You're Jedi enough. Otherwise, we wouldn't clash as often as we do."

She snorted. "We clash as often as we do because you find it entertaining, sadist and masochist that Sith tend to be. But ok. I'll give you that. Naturally, number two is that you're a Sith. An unconventional one, but still a Sith."

He couldn't argue that one.

"Three. Palpatine," he stated simply.

It was self-explanatory enough that Ahsoka didn't argue with him or ask about it. They both knew that one of the man's main tactics was using those closest to people against them. They both already had two weak links that the man could exploit. No need to give him a third. No need to provide Palpatine with something that would make them hesitate if it came down to him or the other.

"Four. The Rebellion."

Perhaps that should have been self-explanatory also, but there was an underlying frustration in Ahsoka's tone that seemed to have nothing to do with their current dilemma.

"What's going on with the Rebellion?"

"A… tension between me and some of the members of High Command," Ahsoka admitted.

"Tension?"

"They think I'm… too rough around the edges to be the eventual face of the Rebellion. They want someone a lot more eloquent with words and more politically minded. Someone like Mon, maybe. They haven't said it outright, but we've had some back and forth about my methods. They think I'm hindering any progress they might be able to make in the Senate and am only provoking Palpatine's paranoia with the promise of another war," Ahsoka said with a roll of her eyes.

"I see the loyalist committee is still as inept about the way the galaxy works as they were during the Republic," Vader said, rolling his eyes along with her.

"Padmé was on that committee."

"But she knew when the only option was to pick up a blaster and shoot the problem between the eyes." Vader then continued indignantly, "You built that rebellion from the ground up while they were floundering and hoping their meekness would penetrate Palpatine's non-existent heart and get him to give them back their Republic."

"To be fair, they probably don't know he's a Sith, and if they do, they don't really know what that means."

Vader ignored her and continued, "Diya hated the Republic as much as she hates the Empire now. Without her darknet communications systems, they wouldn't have a secure way to keep contact with as many systems as you do. The Jedi that you haven't let me kill only joined because they heard you were leading it. They have no reason to trust the Senate that applauded Palpatine and me for their extermination. If they remove you, they have no rebellion. Instead, they'll just have created a new enemy for themselves."

"They're not going to try to remove me. They're just… going to try to make me see reason and hand it over to them."

"So they can botch their rebellion like they botched their own Republic and the war."

"Palpatine was responsible for that, and you know it."

"They enabled him. They applauded when he announced his Empire. I wasn't there, but I know. They loop that moment in the Imperial propaganda for Empire Day every year."

Ahsoka gave him a longsuffering look before shaking her head. "Either way, when all this is over, I'm already going to have one hell of a time explaining to them why we should negotiate and create a new Empire with you. They're already going to see it as a betrayal. If we were a thing, they'd think I was compromised and might turn the Rebellion against me."

"They'll try. And it'll be their last act of defiance before they meet a swift death by my hand for denying my offer of peace, which is more than what they'll get trying to negotiate with Palpatine."

Something bloomed across the bond again, and this time Vader was definitely sure it was from Ahsoka. She was sure too, because she quickly said, "So number four. The Rebellion. Number five, Padme. Since you brought her up."

Another self-explanatory thing, thus Ahsoka continued, "Six and Seven: Luke and Leia."

"Don't Luke and Leia count as one?"

"Two people, two items on the list. We're explosive enough now as friends, and I use that term loosely. Luke and Leia see us fight too often as it is. The last thing we want to do is normalize that kind of behavior for them, so they take it into their future relationships," Ahsoka explained. "Which leads me to eight. Our very unhealthy co-dependency."

He didn't know on his own what she meant by that, but suddenly he got the impression of a lot of thoughts and feelings from her that gave him insight. They were caught in what seemed like a never-ending loop of hating each other and not hating each other, whatever not hating each other meant. She lived for their explosive verbal altercations as much as he did. And he was looking forward to the next time their opposing ideals saw them clashing on the battlefield. Yet she always turned around to defend him. He knew that from Diya. And he'd probably kill anyone that so much as thought about saying or doing anything to harm her. He would already have to resist the urge to cause an unfortunate accident for those he knew to be on her Rebellion High Command. Ahsoka's inevitable fury and the Emperor's guaranteed punishment be damned. They had no right. They—

"Number nine. You're possessive and controlling as hell. I don't belong to you."

It didn't take long for Vader to figure out that she'd picked up on his thoughts as sure as he'd picked up on hers earlier.

"Number ten. You almost killed me," Vader said.

The atmosphere in the hollow immediately thickened with tension. Vader was sure it would have been worse if the mechanical sound of his pacemaker were present.

"Number eleven. Because you tried to kill me."

"I…" Vader began but then trailed off. He shook his head and said, "That was never my intention."

"Wasn't it?" Ahsoka asked quietly.

"Not on Mustafar." Because that's what they were talking about. Every other time they wanted to kill each other or that he'd intended to stemmed from that incident.

"Number twelve. I don't trust you."

_Especially not with my heart_, was the rest unspoken. They were at this point because of a series of his ill-thought-out decisions that they now were fighting to undo the consequences of. And that wasn't counting the personal reasons she had not to trust him. Because how many times had he failed her in his former life and in his new one? When the Order expelled her to be tried at the behest of the Senate. When he didn't fight the Council for splitting up their team in the name of giving her space and independence when she might have needed him most. When he'd attacked Padme, almost killed her, and left her to fend for herself with two newborns in a galaxy out to obliterate her because he'd been so consumed by his own rage and hatred and deceived by Palpatine's pretty lies.

She was right not to trust him. He'd shattered her heart once already.

It bothered Vader a lot more than he wanted to admit even to himself. Because he was confident that he could trust her with the entire galaxy if he gave it to her. More than he could trust himself with it. Everything he touched, he ended up destroying.

"What's thirteen?" he asked.

"Can't think of one," Ahsoka said quietly.

"Me neither."

"Guess it's twelve reasons why then."

They fell into silence, such silence that Vader thought she'd fallen asleep after a while. Then she sighed, shifted back towards him, and curled up against him the same way she had before their unsettling discovery.

"We're mature adults, and I'm a lot colder than I am dismayed that you have a crush on me," she said in explanation.

Why did he get the distinct impression that she was lying?

"If you try anything," she added, "I'll kill you."

Vader huffed. "You will try."

That feeling came back across the bond, and once again, Vader couldn't tell who it had come from. The dismay that followed definitely came from them both.

They were doomed.

* * *

**AN:** I told you all to convince me to post a chapter early, and you did such a good job that I decided to put the next chapter up today. Like serious. You all really came through with the reviews, favorites, and follows. You deserve this. I will respond to reviews sometime today.

This was one of the first chapters I conceived for this story, and it was one of the chapters I was so looking forward to writing. It really forced them to reassess their relationship. If you noticed, they both say that they ignore their bond, but I very deliberately made sure to show that they didn't. They rely on their bond with each other quite often for two people mutually ignoring it.

Anywho, no more early updates for a while They will be on schedule. I have to finish a final tomorrow night, do a video project and then sleep for two straight days afterward because it has been a long six months for me.

Hope you enjoyed! Review please.


	37. Damn

**Chapter Thirty-Seven: Damn**

Ahsoka had planned for many eventualities about her and Vader's conspiracy to overthrown Palpatine. Disagreements with Vader over raising the twins. Disagreements with Vader in general. Dealing with Vader's awful temper. Confronting her own traumas. Raising and leading the rebellion. Eventually explaining to High Command that she was working with Vader. Mediating both sides once Palpatine was dead, hopefully, able to find a middle ground between Vader's Empire and the Republic that most of her High command valued so much. What she had never in a million lightyears planned, prepared, or fathomed for was Vader having a crush on her.

Crush wasn't even the right word. It was too juvenile. Diya had crushes. On her favorite actors in movies and shows and on the musicians who fought the dramatic censoring of the music industry by releasing and playing music from underground venues. What she'd discovered from Vader toward her wasn't a crush. It felt like something a lot more substantial than that. Crush was just the only safe word that she had for it.

If she were absolutely truthful about what she sensed, it wasn't all coming from him. It felt more like a feedback loop, making it impossible to know where the feeling began and where the feeling ended.

But how the hell had this happened?

They probably only saw each other in person three times a year. Four at most. Last year it was twice. They hadn't crossed paths on a mission since Bacrana, but that was because they always made sure to coordinate their missions so they didn't and so Vader could continue to maintain some semblance of official Imperial ignorance to her dealings. Those fortnightly comm calls always took up way too much of her time. The coordination was the easy part. It was getting to the coordination and finishing it in the midst of their bickering or getting sidetracked about one thing or another th—Oh, Ahsoka suddenly thought to herself. That's how it happened. Part of it anyway.

Ahsoka resisted the urge to groan out loud. She was just lonely. Whatever these feelings were, they weren't real. In a galaxy where she was keeping secrets from everyone, it was refreshing to not have to hold back anything from Vader. To not have to hide parts of who she was to protect herself or someone else. It was only natural. The feeling would pass.

"You are thinking incredibly loud right now," Vader said from beside her, his mask back on but without the mechanical breathing after he tweaked the pacemaker to temporarily be silent.

"Stay out of my head then," Ahsoka growled, giving Vader a mental shove.

"I'm not in your head," Vader replied, mentally shoving her back.

Ahsoka started to debate that. But then she remembered how over the past day or so she'd get impressions of a memory that didn't feel like it totally belonged to her. Like a melding of points of view. She hadn't thought much of them before, but now…

"It appears we've found your base," Vader commented as they came upon a small clearing in the dense forest where sat a large metal structure.

It had to be an old outpost from possibly centuries ago by the way the wildlands seemed to have reclaimed it. An early attempt at settling the area before settlers gave up. A quick check with the Force confirmed people were inside. Many of them. All rebels and sympathizers hiding out after the fall out of the attack a few days ago, Ahsoka guessed.

"Okay. Here's the plan," Ahsoka began. "I'll go inside and see what they have to say. If this is the misunderstanding that I hope it is, maybe they can help lead us to the true culprits."

"You think I'm going to let you go inside and face a group of potential terrorists while I stand outside and wait?" Vader asked.

"Yes. That's exactly what you're going to do. I'm not going to intimidate them and give them any ideas by bringing Darth Vader with me. Not only is no one supposed to know we're working together, but it will undoubtedly give people the wrong idea at this point."

Ahsoka sensed Vader's mood darken, a sure sign that he was losing patience about this entire situation.

"I didn't like this situation before I agreed to let you come on this mission, and I like it even less now. This may not be a trap, but this is undoubtedly a dangerous predicament. You showed your spy your insignia, and he ran. What other proof do you need that this cell is as unsavory and corrupted as the other terrorist rebellions across the galaxy that you try to distance your alliance from?" Before Ahsoka could answer, Vader continued, "I have a bad feeling about this. And so do you."

"You're being paranoid is what," Ahsoka replied. She groaned and then added, "And you're letting your stupid crush on me cloud your judgment."

"For the last time, I don't have a crush on you. That's beneath me."

"Oh. I know…"

"And you're only projecting your own feelings onto me because you don't want to admit their actual source."

Ahsoka opened her mouth to respond before pausing and shaking her head. She and Vader could work this out later. Right now, it was an unnecessary distraction. Maybe she could make that number thirteen.

"Whatever. Either way, you stay out here. I'll let you know if I need backup."

That said, Ahsoka made her way into the clearing, leaving Vader to stew in his anger just beyond it. Unsurprisingly, whatever security the group had set up alerted the cell as soon as she stepped in a certain radius and out came a mismatched group of three guards with blasters pointed at her.

"You can put those away," Ahsoka said calmly. "I mean no harm. Fulcrum sent me."

Ahsoka flicked her wrist to show the watch with her insignia on it once again. The three guards exchanged a look before nodding and gesturing for her to follow them. As they led her inside, they flanked her on all sides, their blasters still pointed at her. She hadn't wanted to admit it to Vader, but his paranoia was well warranted. Their hostility towards her didn't bode well.

Once they were secure inside the base, another guard stepped forward. He patted her down, finding all three of her lightsabers and her blaster, but not the blade she kept in her boots. Then they took her to the rogue-ish dark-haired man who led the Eriadu cell. Dek.

"Well, if it isn't one of the Fulcrum's favorite agents. Aisha. How have you been?" Dek asked, calling Ahsoka by one of the many aliases she used when she had to make personal visits to rebellion cells.

As far as most that she'd had to make contact with, she was the Fulcrum's chief lieutenant. Only Diya, Ahsoka's Jedi tracking task force, and her most elite Fulcrum agents knew the truth of her identity. Considering the situation she was currently dealing with, Ahsoka was glad she'd had the foresight to keep her identity secret from the broader rebellion.

Ahsoka decided to take a page out of Vader's book and skip the pleasantries.

"Dek. What's going on? The entire planet is on lockdown, and no communication can get in or out of the system. But even before all that, Fulcrum hadn't heard from you or the agent she left here. You were supposed to give her monthly updates on your status. You missed the last one," Ahsoka pointed out.

"Yeah. About the agent. They had an unfortunate accident," Dek said with a shrug.

"What kind of accident?" Ahsoka asked as the bad feeling she had increased, and this time, a Force warning backed it up. She shifted her weight some to get a better footing.

"The kind where you drown in a swamp and get eaten by the beasts of the swamp," Dek said. "You know, like the unfortunate one that's about to happen to you."

Ahsoka didn't question the instincts that told her to duck and then sweep her leg around to trip the guard that had been silently coming up behind her with some piece of cloth in his hand. He fell backward with a loud thud as Ahsoka stood back up and spun around to grab hold of the rifle blaster the twi'lek guard pointed at her. She redirected it to shoot the three guards that burst into the room with blasters cocked after hearing the commotion. Then she directed it down to the fallen guard that was struggling back to his feet, downing him yet again with a bolt, kneed the twi'lek afterward, and snatched the rifle out her hand. She tossed the rifle to the farther corner of the room and far away from any of the felled guards. Then she summoned her two confiscated sabers to her hands, lighting and pointing both at Dek.

"Let's try this again," Ahsoka said, ever aware of the atmosphere in the Force thick with danger.

"Yes. Let's," Dek said, dropping a smoke bomb in the middle of the office.

Ahsoka was disoriented only as long as it took for her to reach out to the Force so she could find her way despite the smoke clouding the room that made her throat and eyes itch. She ignored the sensations, deeming them little more than irritations before letting the Force guide her to where Dek had run off to.

She was guided to a large open hanger where Dek was ushering his subordinates on board to escape. Upon seeing her, they opened fire as they made their way backwards up the ramp. Ahsoka advanced as she deflected bolts until, finally, the shooting stopped as the ship lifted into the air. Ahsoka leapt into the air, grabbing ahold of the ramp before it got to high up and preventing it from closing. She pulled herself up and into the ship, ducking the blaster that swung her way and tried to knock her to the ground beneath.

"This is insanity," Ahsoka said. "Stop this."

"Insanity is you bringing Vader here," Dek said, coming out with his blaster.

"I didn't bring Vader here." That wasn't a lie. He'd brought her technically. "You brought him here by killing civilians in a non-military target with your bomb."

"We didn't have a choice. It was the only way to get the attention of the Tarkins and all the other families who exploit us and our labor on this planet. The only way to remind the Empire that we're here and we're more powerful than they think. To make them know of only some of the pain that they've inflicted on us," Dek said, shooting at her.

"That is not the way this rebellion works," Ahsoka said, deflecting the bolts as the ship lurched backward, almost causing her to tumble back with the unexpected force.

"It should. Those missions you have us run? They're pointless. They're not doing anything. What we need to be doing is actually fighting the Empire?"

"What the hell do you think I'm getting ready for?" Ahsoka said, Dek's shot missing her as the ship lurched again. Kriff, there was no winning with some people. To High Command, she was too militant, and to groups like Dek, she wasn't doing enough. She added, "You don't care about this rebellion or the rest of the galaxy or fighting the Empire. You just wanted revenge. And you used what I taught you to get it."

Before Dek could answer to that, the ship lurched back again, managing to throw Ahsoka forward into the ship and causing Dek to fall back against the wall.

"What the kriff is that?" Dek asked.

"I don't know. It's like we're caught in a tractor beam, but we're not," the pilot yelled from the cockpit.

"What are you doing?" Dek demanded from Ahsoka.

"I haven't done anything," Ahsoka said, bracing herself against the wall as the ship began to descend. That said, she knew exactly who was, acutely aware of Vader's power firmly gripping the ship as he pulled it back towards the ground despite the pilot trying to resist.

Ahsoka sensed Dek's growing desperation as the engines stalled, and the ship began to steadily descend to the ground. The kind of desperation that foretold desperate actions. She was proven right when Dek reached in his pocket and pulled out a detonator.

"No," Ahsoka said, reaching out with the Force to try to contain some of the explosion since there was no cover for her to take as he activated the detonator.

The next thing Ahsoka knew, she was on the ground, unable to breathe as her body struggled to cough up dust and debris from the explosion. It could have been much worse had she not at least tried to contain the explosion. A trick she'd learned from Vader. A trick that was a last resort and took almost everything out of him when he'd been her Jedi master. He'd developed the trick over the years and given her a vague explanation of it a couple of years back when she asked how to do it. When she finally managed to cough up most of the debris, she pushed the rubble of the ship off of her and sat up, causing the echoed ringing in her montrals to become worse. But even with her focus disrupted, she sensed the biting chill of the dark side of the Force, the atmosphere thick with rage and fear and hate that made it harder to breathe than the debris did.

Ignoring the ringing in her montrals, she instinctively knew where to find Vader, and her eyes went to where he was. He held his lightsaber, advancing on the survivors of the explosion, of which there were many thanks to Ahsoka dampening the effect of the detonator. At the same time, he deflected the attacks of the rebels that had been left behind in the base that was now on fire and had come out to stop him. Apparently, she'd also taken the brunt of the bomb's impact, because somehow the rest of the crew had managed to get to their feet holding their blasters and shooting at Vader. Though he was surrounded on all sides, Vader was unbothered. The blaster bolts dissolved against whatever Force shield he'd conjured, and any time a rebel tried to get close, he either threw them aside with the Fore or cut them down with his lightsaber. Their fear further saturated the Force.

It was one thing to have your weapon taken from you. It was one thing for someone to deflect the shots from that weapon with another. But to have your weapon, to have a clear shot, to shoot a shot that would be a direct hit and have it bounce off your opponent, for your weapons to be useless in your hands? That brought another type of fear. A fear that Vader relished as he cut down, choked, and otherwise maimed all those who dared to try to stop him

What she felt from Vader concerned Ahsoka the most, though. The darkness consumed him in a way that she hadn't sensed since she confronted him on Mustafar, where he'd been so lost in the dark side he'd been beyond reason. That protective, possessive rage that incited him to attack Padmé, to fight Obi-wan, to almost kill her. And what was worse, it was because of her.

Ahsoka had long suspected that part of what caused Padmé to die was the horrifying realization that, ultimately, Vader's atrocities had been done in her name. The horror that from a certain point of view, their forbidden relationship made her complicit in his crimes. The horrifying realization that maybe that relationship had been forbidden for good reason. That compacted with the stress of her pregnancy, Vader's attack on her, and the stress of the labor afterward had just put the final nail in the coffin.

By no means was Vader cutting down a few rebels anything close the initial atrocities he'd committed. Or even close to the atrocities he still committed in the Emperor's name. It wasn't a stretch to imagine that Dek and his brood rather die than be captured based on him setting off a detonator. They likely would have ended up dead by the end of all this anyway. But the power she felt Vader exuding, the bloodlust that the all-consuming power of the dark side brought and drove him to commit genocide, reminded Ahsoka of what Vader had the capacity to do.

Vader saved Dek for last, and when he was done, he stood amongst the carnage looking for more opponents, his bloodlust not satisfied. The darkness had almost totally closed her off from him, so with a fair amount of trepidation, Ahsoka approached him.

"Vader," she said, trying to stay calm and keep the tremor out her voice. "It's over. You need to calm down."

He slowly turned to look at her with the soulless gaze of his mask. Ahsoka was so used to looking into it, it had stopped bothering her long ago. Now, it was yet another reminder of what she might potentially be dealing with.

"Vader," she said again when he didn't respond, not sure what to say. Not sure how to pull him back from over the edge that he'd allowed himself to go into. Because the last time she'd been present, and something like this happened, she and Padmé had spectacularly failed.

Timidly, she reached out and put her hand on his right arm, careful of his still ignited lightsaber.

"Vader," she said and then took a deep breath to calm down, to steady her voice and clear the panic from her brain to say the only thing that would likely calm him. "I'm fine. I'm okay."

For a while, she didn't think it would work, and she began to make a mental list of the things she could say to bring him back to control short of dueling him. Because, Force, she really didn't want to have to duel him like this. Then she sensed his Force signature take what was the equivalent of a deep breath before the tension in his arm loosened, and he switched off his lightsaber. Ahsoka could have collapsed in relief.

They stood amongst the carnage in silence for a few moments before Vader turned to her and said, "Are you unharmed?"

It came out strangled, most likely because he was also focusing on wrestling the dark side back under his control at the same time.

"I'm fine." No sooner than she finished did she get a weird ringing in her montrals again, and the world began to spin around her.

She swayed on her feet and used Vader's arm to steady herself. His force presence flared again, but without her prompting, he got it under control.

Once she was steady, she muttered without looking at him, "Reason thirteen. I won't be the next woman you damn the galaxy for."

* * *

**AN**: This chapter was so hard to initially write and went through so many changes at the last minute but I got it out. What was most important about this chapter is that Mustafar right after the Jedi purge and Padmé's death are still ghosts that haunt Ahsoka and haunt her relationship with Vader. Padmé's death especially. There's a lot of debate about what killed her, but what killed her isn't so much my point as the fact that whatever it was certainly was not helped by what was no doubt the dawning horror that Anakin committed all his deeds in her name. Ultimately, no mattered what unwitting hand she played in his fall, his actions weren't her fault. But even knowing that, it's impossible to begin to imagine or put into words what she probably felt knowing he'd done all he did in the name of protecting her. At the very least, her shock contributed to her not being able to fight back against what did kill her. And now, knowing that she could end up in that same position undoubtedly scares the hell out of Ahsoka.

Anywho, sorry for this being a few hours late. I usually like to get these out earlier in the day but I had to finish a project that due tomorrow as my last thing for school. Very simple and only taking a couple of hours, but you give me two weeks to do something, I'm going to wait until the last minute always. Procrastination Queen.

Hope you enjoyed. Thank you for all the review, favorites, and follows. I really appreciate it. You all have absolutely floored me with the response to this story lately. So many reviews and favorites and follows. I'm flattered. You humble me. Truly. I hope I can keep living up to your expectations.


	38. Halfway

**Chapter Thirty-Eight: Halfway**

Though Vader's preference was to kill those who stood in his way, in many ways, it made things a lot more complicated. Killing the suspected perpetrators meant an unfortunate lack of ability to glean much more information about their attack for both the Empire and the Rebellion. Now, neither governing body would be able to discover if this had been an isolated incident or if the Eriadu rebel cell had ties to more terroristic rebel organizations throughout the galaxy. Not that the distinction mattered to the Emperor. All rebels were the same as far as he was concerned. But if Vader had the presence of mind to take some information from their heads before he'd executed them, it would have made his job in the aftermath a lot easier. A job that was already made harder since he was distracted.

It had taken all his focus and willpower to hide his distraction from the Emperor when Vader made his report to him. But he was almost positive he'd done a relatively sufficient job of it. Once Vader confirmed that no Jedi had been involved in the plot and that the culprits were dead, the Emperor dismissed him. If he'd sensed anything amiss, the Sith master would have played one is mind games. Vader doubted he had the energy or focus to keep himself from falling for the man's mind traps while at the same time making the man think he had. If he'd slipped, no doubt he would have been called back to Imperial Center immediately, and Vader wasn't sure he'd be able to keep Ahsoka's survival from Sidious any longer.

Vader resisted the urge to groan as he tried and failed to take himself into a resting meditation to bring some clarity to this confusing mess as he lay on his bed.

From the day Vader had met her, Ahsoka had always been the type to speak her mind. But with all trust between them lost, their mutual fury at each other, and the Jedi tenants that would have tempered her long abandoned, Ahsoka was a lot more likely to make sure he explicitly knew when she was displeased with him. There was no occasion which she had been displeased with him that she held back on the cutting remarks or biting truths that he didn't want to hear.

For the first time, though, she was giving him the silent treatment. Even her end of the bond was suspiciously muted. The silence bothered him even more than it had on Naboo a year ago. Though, unlike back then, he knew the direct cause of her silence, knowing only complicated the matter more when he had no idea what to do about it.

Ahsoka wasn't one to resort to silence for long, though. So Vader decided to consider it a temporary blessing. It was hard to examine his own mind and feelings when they were both trying to blame the other for the latest dilemma they were dealing with at the time. That was certainly so now when he needed to examine his apparently more-than-friends feelings for her, though he denied their existence when they'd both uncovered it.

This was wholly and completely different from Padmé. He'd admittedly been childishly enamored with her since he met her, not even having a complete understanding of what he felt for her was. The only thing he'd known was that the Force—before he even knew it by that name—whispered to him that she was his destiny. So he'd carried that promise and that torch for her in the interceding years before they were reunited. His and Padmé's feelings for each other had been passionate and all-consuming from the beginning. He had never not known how he felt about her.

Whatever was coming across the bond with Ahsoka was quiet, creeping up on him in such a way that it had been easy to ignore until he took the time to inspect it. Truthfully, he should have known something was happening when their bond somehow managed to repair itself despite them both mutually ignoring its presence. Initially, anyway. At some point, the convenience of the bond became hard to resist. At some point, they'd stopped ignoring the bond when its presence presented itself. Yet, somehow they had both still conveniently ignored how much the Force connection between them had actually strengthened. At some point that Vader couldn't specify, they had gone from hating one another to tolerating one another enough that they could loosely call each other friends to whatever was happening now.

But how? And all without either of them realizing.

"Force, you're thinking incredibly loud."

Also way more distracted than he thought he was if he hadn't sensed her approach, despite her muted Force signature. Yet another sign that something was amiss between them. He would have to go into a true meditation later to recenter himself in the Force.

She was standing in the doorway to his room, taking advantage of the fact that he hadn't bothered closing the door when he was finally able to steal away to rest. Not that a closed door would have stopped her from entering anyway.

Proving his point, she walked into the room and sat on his desk, leaning against the wall while swinging her legs back and forth.

They didn't speak at first, and for anyone else, it might have been awkward. But as Ahsoka had pointed out a few days ago, they had been through much tougher situations. If anything, the silence between them was companionable. Expectedly, Ahsoka was the one who eventually broke the silence.

"You know," she began evenly, "when I sat down and thought about it, this whole thing kind of makes sense."

"What makes sense?"

"Our attraction toward each other."

Vader instinctively began to deny her statement. Then he remembered that it didn't matter what he said when the sensations that periodically went back and forth across their bond told a different story. Instead, he asked, "How so?"

"Because no one is ever going to understand us like we understand us." She elaborated, "At the end of all this when we've pissed everyone off with the revelation of our truce and dealt with people's perceived betrayals and wrestled everyone into tentative compliance, you're going to be the only person I have left. And I'm going to be the only person you have left. Truly, anyway."

Vader didn't need to feel the impression of what she meant across their bond for him to know what she meant.

After everything had gone so spectacularly wrong once he pledged himself to Sidious, Vader had resigned himself to a life of being alone as punishment for his failures. He hadn't been able to protect the one person he cared for most, so he deserved for his existence to be dedicated to an empty service to Sidious. The only thing Vader might have been able to look forward to was becoming strong enough again to put Sidious out of his misery. But even that would be an empty feat. Then he found Luke and Leia, and some of that loneliness eased. Still, even then he was faced with the reality that one day they would grow up, learn what a terrible person he truly was, and want nothing to do with him.

Ahsoka had always been peculiar in the sense that she was willing to overlook his past sins and the sins he was still committing to settle on what she perceived as the good in him. Seeming willing to accept him in a way no one had been willing to in a long time.

_If ever_, a voice whispered in Vader's head, reminding him that even in the end, Padmé had rejected that side of him. He banished it like he banished most thoughts of his dead wife.

He'd denied Ahsoka's acceptance. Even directed his anger toward her out of a possessive jealousy—which he hadn't realized he had until recently—that the only reason she overlooked his sins was out of some misguided longing for his weaker, former self. But he could admit if only to himself that she'd proven otherwise over the years. She wholly accepted all facets of him, asking him only to be the one in control and not to let his strengths and weaknesses control him. Without her, he would have to confront the inevitability of being surrounded by people but ultimately being alone and forever misunderstood. Then on Naboo, she admitted a similar insecurity, and, in response, he offered her a place at his side. Not as a Sith as he'd wanted years ago and wouldn't object to now, but just to be there.

"What are you saying?" he finally asked.

"I'm saying that instead of freaking out and making things spectacularly worse by denying our… our non-platonic attraction toward each other, we just accept it for what it is."

Vader paused, not particularly sure what she was getting at, especially considering a little over a day ago she insisted on creating a list of reasons to not get involved. A very rational list of reasons that he was going to remind her off if she was suggesting what he thought she was.

She picked up on his thoughts again because she continued, "I'm not saying we actually do anything about it. I meant what I said. I won't be put in a position where you have to choose between me and the galaxy. We both know what you'd choose. You can't help yourself," Ahsoka stated, sending a grim look his way. She softened her expression when she continued. "What I am saying is that after we kill Sidious, stabilize the Galactic government, and we've eliminated all the reasons I might be put in that position, maybe those other reasons won't be such a big deal."

"So you want us, in essence, to do what we've been doing? Ignore it."

"Yes… no. Ugh," Ahsoka groaned. "This made so much more sense in my head."

Vader waited for her to make sense of what she meant. After a while, she said, "All I'm saying is that we were probably going to end up at the very least some sort of platonic life companions anyway. Maybe this is a natural progression that there's no point in fighting forever. Or… I don't know. Maybe it'll go away on its own by the time it's safe to explore it. I just think maybe the best way to deal with this is to not put any energy into dealing with it at all when we've got more important things to worry about."

This was her Jedi teachings coming out; the things she was raised on and couldn't seem to let go despite her renouncement. It sounded like the kind of advice Yoda might have given. That some things were just the will of the Force and didn't need their attention. That said, it likely wasn't advice the Jedi would have given about this situation. They would have advised to let their feelings go, that those feelings were both somehow natural and yet against the will of the Force for a Jedi. Though she was trying to stay calm, he sensed her inner panic and desperation. The same spike of it he felt when she admitted that she didn't trust him. And she wasn't the only one with trust issues. Regardless of her reasons for it, she'd refused a place at his side before. And even though it was now a standing offer and he knew she felt better knowing, in the end, she had a place she could choose to be, she still hadn't explicitly taken it. Ahsoka could always find her place elsewhere after all this was over. Regardless of her reasons, Vader wanted to deal with the issue as much as she did. That was, not at all.

"If that's what we're going to agree on," Vader finally replied, "then we can direct that energy into something else that you and I need to discuss."

Ahsoka sighed. "What now?"

"If it wasn't clear to me before, it's abundantly clear to me now that you have no sense of self-preservation where your life is concerned. If you did, you would not have insisted on coming here for this mission."

"Vader, I'm the leader of a rebellion. My life is in danger by virtue of that fact regardless of whether or not I go on missions. It would be in danger anyway. I'm a former Jedi. A well-known one at that," Ahsoka added.

"Which is why I will be designating you a bodyguard."

Ahsoka balked, opening and closing her mouth in disbelief before repeating, "A bodyguard? Vader, you can't be serious. I don't need a bodyguard. I can protect myself."

"That may be the case. But my hopes are that you won't need to if someone is there whose sole focus is to anticipate any possible threats against you and minimize the risks of those threats if you're going to continue to insist on putting yourself in unnecessarily hostile predicaments. Hopefully, they'll make you think twice about putting yourself in them at all."

Vader doubted the last part. Ahsoka had been running into danger without thinking of the possible cost to herself since he'd met her. But she would think twice about dragging along someone who had no choice but to follow her into a dangerous situation and didn't have the added benefit of the Force for protection.

"Vader. This makes…" She trailed off and opened and closed her mouth in sheer incredulity. "This makes absolutely no sense. You were fine with it before."

Before, Vader had been arrogant enough to think that his training would be enough to keep her safe. And it had been on Eriadu. But what if the next time someone tried to kill her for getting in their way, it wasn't enough. He might not be able to personally ensure her safety by not allowing her out his sight, but he could place someone with her that could. He already had someone in mind. Someone who would protect Ahsoka as though she belonged to them the same way she belonged to him. As their own.

"See. This is that possessiveness I'm talking about. I don't belong to you."

Something dark and angry surged up in him. The same darkness that surged up in him and consumed him just over a day ago when he realized the rogue rebel cell had blown up their ship with Ahsoka on it. Roaring in indignant outrage that anyone dared try to harm what was his before he'd blacked out in rage with the sole intent of obliterating anything his path that might even think to harm what was his.

She said she wouldn't be the next woman he damned the galaxy for. But it was far too late. He'd already lost his control over the dark side so quickly at the mere thought that an insignificant rogue pirate dared to try to take her from him. He would damn the galaxy for her. And he'd regret the process about as much as he regretted the process the last time he'd done it for Padmé. Even now, the only thing he truly regretted about his actions before was that he'd failed to protect Padmé despite damning the galaxy. He didn't plan to have that regret again. Just because they weren't sure where they stood with each other didn't mean he had any intention of allowing harm come Ahsoka's way.

"You don't want to be the next woman I damn the galaxy for?" he asked, that dark anger seeping into his tone and past his shields so that Ahsoka undoubtedly sensed it. To both his pleasure and confusion, she didn't retreat from it. In fact, her own Force signature reacted by cocooning the darkness around her. For what reason, Vader did not know, nor did he know if she was conscious of it.

He continued, "Then meet me halfway on this."

For a while, she said nothing. But Vader knew she'd give him an answer eventually, and he was content to wait on it.

Finally, she said in a disgruntled tone, "It doesn't even matter what I say. You're going to find a way to force this on me anyway. You'll send a spy to watch me if you need to."

"I am pleased that we have that kind of understanding," Vader retorted.

"Ass," she muttered with her arms crossed, acting comically like the teenager that she'd once been. Then she asked resignedly, "Who do you have in mind? Going to give me one of your maidens?"

Vader scowled, instinctively reaching across their bond to give her a mental shove before he could realize what he was doing and stop himself. He received smug amusement back. Ahsoka frequently teased him about the all-female task force Sabé led, jokingly calling it his harem on a few occasions. She finally settled on calling the group his maidens, a name Sabé heard her say once and ran with for the sole purpose of annoying him, he was sure.

"You'll find them suitable enough for the job," Vader assured.

"And if I don't?"

"You will."

"Vader," she said flatly.

"They'll be ready to be assigned to you before you depart." He sensed her starting to argue and added, "You really don't think I'm letting you leave this ship in the condition you're in? I read the report from medical. You're not going anywhere for a few days."

Vader sensed her debating whether or not to argue with him. Finally, she sighed, hopped off the desk, and left the room, releasing herself from the cold cocoon of his dark presence as she did. He pretended not to feel of loss at the absence of her warm signature touching his, all the while trying not to be concerned by the way the Force had hummed in contentment up until she'd detached herself from him.

* * *

**AN:** Okay. This is a long ass author's note, but keep reading. The third point is an Anisoka rec, btw.

1) This chapter, like the last, went through one hell of an edit until I was happy with it. From moving whole paragraphs to other parts of the chapter, down to the most minute word choices. So yes. The slow burn still lives, except our hero (anti-hero?) and heroine are aware that it's burning. The next chapter introduces something that many of you have been asking about, and I was a little apprehensive because I've never written from that point of view before. Feel free to make your guesses.

2) Therecklessone asked a specific question that I wanted to answer, but couldn't because this site won't let me reply to guest reviews. :( Specifically, they asked if I thought Ahsoka always had a crush or had some kind of attraction to Anakin in canon. I elaborate on this a little later in the story but I'll do so a little more broadly here. I think she looked up to him a lot. I think she was very enamored with him. But I really think it was in an intimate friends or older brother way. Admittedly, you can read into it. The show gives great subtext that is never elaborated on, and as Ahsoka got older their back and forth wit and the looks they exchanged could be read as flirtatious. But I honestly think it was in that same close friends way like Anakin had with Obi-wan. Now, did that relationship have the potential to change? Absolutely. Otherwise, this fanfic wouldn't exist. Do I think Ahsoka canonically had a crush on Anakin? Probably not, though the reading isn't at all far-fetched. I swear the illustrators and writers put things in there on purpose to tease certain "what-ifs" to the fans.

3) Some of you also asked for other Anisoka fanfic recs, and I have one in particular because it's on this site in the "Star Wars: Clone Wars" category under cartoons. The crowd isn't as big in that fandom, mostly because I don't think people think to go check for it. Any, the story is called _Condemned as One_ by Aevar. It's an interesting take on what might have happened if Ahsoka was able to contact Anakin after she beat Maul. It's really good, and I really want the author to keep writing and to finish it. So head over, and if you like it, give them some encouragement.

Now. Last thing, but not least. You all have truly overwhelmed me with your love for this story. I try to reply to all the reviews, but it seems like I'm spending as much time replying as I am writing the rest of this story. Keep the reviews coming, of course. I love to read them, and they inspire me. But I'm going to have to start picking and choosing when I reply, mostly if someone asks a question or surprises me with insight (which you all do all the time). Once again, thank you.


	39. Rex's Interlude

**Chapter Thirty-Nine: ****Rex's Interlude**

When Rex first deserted the Imperial Army, he spent the first few years continually looking over his shoulders. Keeping out the sight of his brothers who hadn't been lucky enough to get their control chips removed. But the further removed from the clone wars that he'd gotten, the more confident he'd become that the Imperial Army wasn't worried about finding him. Unsurprising given that the Imps and their Emperor decided the clones had outlived their usefulness and decommissioned the clone program. Couldn't say he was terribly upset about the latter. Let the Imps use their own people as cannon fodder to enforce their Empire. But hearing that his brothers had been "phased out" gave him concerned.

It was one of those benign phrases the Republic and the Kaminoans used to hide something more sinister from the broader public that might give a damn. While the chips had been overwhelmingly effective in overriding the free will of his brother to execute the Jedi, they hadn't been as effective in keeping the clones sane in the aftermath. There had been many with wills strong enough that they tried to fight the chips, even as it eventually forced them to kill their Jedi generals. Some of them put their own blasters to their heads to put themselves out of their misery. They were counted in the number of clones that were "phased out."

Something must have changed, though. As indicated by the arrival of Imperial troopers showing up at one of the old safety outposts he'd been hiding out in. And not just any Imperial troopers, but the elite ones that belonged to Darth Vader.

Rex didn't know much about the man. Rumors said that he was little more than an advanced cyborg or some species that had special breathing requirements, hence the conspicuous life support suit. What Rex did know for sure was that the man was a Sith, given the title of "Darth," which made sense since the man had personally marched on the Jedi Temple when the order to murder the Jedi went out. He also knew the man folded what remained of his brothers into his own elite Imperial Legion—Vader's Fist as they were called.

The only reason he could think that Vader was personally coming after him and wanted him alive was that he wanted to use him to help wage another war—the continuation of a war that had never really ended. His contacts told him about the different rebellions around the galaxy rising up to fight the Empire, but there was one, in particular, that seemed to be gaining headway toward outright fighting the Empire. The Rebel Alliance, led by their mysterious but very military tactically competent leader, the Fulcrum. He'd thought about joining up with them, but he was tired of fighting wars that he had no stakes in for other people. He had every intention of telling Darth Vader that too, along with the fact that he'd never fight for the man that was personally responsible for the extermination of his Jedi generals. Skywalker. Tano. Kenobi. All murdered by his hand, and if not directly, he was still responsible for it. Him and Chan—_Emperor_ Palpatine.

They would probably be Rex's last words. Another thing he knew about Darth Vader was his reputation for killing men that refused him and blatantly disobeyed his authority.

After a long walk from the shuttle that brought him to the man's destroyer, he was roughly dragged into an office with two troopers posted on either side of the door and dropped into a seat. Rex had learned a long time ago that there was no use trying to get his other brothers to rebel, not with those chips in their heads. Thus, he ignored the ones posted inside the door.

The temperature in the room dropped, and Rex knew Darth Vader had arrived long before the door behind him opened and he heard the distinct mechanical sound of the man's breathing. The next moment, Vader crossed the room and sat across from Rex on the other side of his desk. The man observed him silently through the black lenses of his mask for a few moments before he spoke.

"You no longer need those," Vader said, his head nodding to the cuffs around Rex's wrists. In the next second, they opened, allowing Rex to release his wrists.

He was partly tempted to try to make a break from the room, but he wasn't stupid. He'd seen what his general had been able to do, and Skywalker had been known as one of the most powerful—if not the most powerful—Jedi in their ranks. If he'd fallen to Darth Vader, Rex stood no chance.

Without any preamble, including no mention of the fact that Rex had deserted and was technically a traitor, Vader said, "Commander Rex, I have a job for you."

"If it's being part of your ranks to wipe out the remains of the Jedi generals or fight whatever new war is brewing, I'm gonna have to respectfully decline, sir," Rex said bluntly.

A sound came through the voice modulator that Rex thought might have been a scoff or a snort on anyone else.

"I hardly need your assistance for either of those things. Your job will be of a much more stressing and headache-inducing variety."

Rex wasn't sure if that had been sarcasm or exasperation. Everything seemed to come out through the modulator in a harsh barking way, leaving little room for tone.

"Here she comes," Vader added flatly before nodding to the troopers at the door. "Allow her inside."

The door slid open just in time for the "her" to walk in without having to break her stride, though Rex didn't bother turning around to see who she was.

"Vader. You've managed to keep me here a week and a half longer than I ever intended to or needed to be here. I don't care what you say. I'm heading out next rotation."

Rex startled in surprise. He knew that voice. The inflection of it had changed some over the years, certainly not as high pitched as it had been when he first heard it coming from a snippy little teenage girl. But he recognized it. He'd know it anywhere.

"The medical droid gave me the clear. Concussion's gone, no lasting effects, and bacta took care of any other minor wounds. They won't even scar. I've never needed a bodyguard before, and I don't need one now. You're just gonna have to get over yourself," she said as she walked right past him to stand adjacent to him and right in front of Vader with her arms crossed.

No amount of military training could have kept him from staring at the togruta woman in disbelief even if he cared to keep up some pretense of decorum.

"Impeccable timing then. Your bodyguard has just arrived," Vader said, waving his hand in Rex's direction.

She cocked her hip and groaned, and Rex didn't need to see her face to know she rolling her eyes and twisting her lips in displeasure.

Without taking her attention from Vader, she said to him, "Sorry. It's nothing personal against you. He's just an overprotective j—"

She paused. A soft gasp escaping her lips before she whirled around to face him with her hands dropped at her sides, surprise coloring her features.

"Rex," she breathed.

Rex stood to his feet, the cuffs that were still sitting in his lap, falling to the floor.

"Long time no see, littl' un. Well, no so little anymore."

Ahsoka's surprise gave way to joy, and she let out a delighted laugh before throwing her arms around him. Stars, he thought to himself as he returned her hug, she was taller than him now.

"I thought you were dead," she whispered.

"Seems to be a mutual misunderstanding going around," he replied gruffly.

She pulled away but kept her arms on his as she inspected him.

"You got old," he joked.

She took the comment good-naturedly and replied, "Had to happen sometime."

"You find my selection suitable then?" Vader said, reminding Rex that he was in the room. And reminding Rex that Ahsoka had casually strolled in to complain to the man like he wasn't… well, Darth Vader.

Ahsoka let go of Rex and turned to Vader. She was trying to scowl again but failing miserably, and the tilt of Vader's mask in response revealed that he knew it.

"I suppose," Ahsoka answered vaguely. "I still don't need a bodyguard."

Rex agreed on that one.

"The fact that you think that is precisely why you're getting one," Vader replied as he stood to his feet.

"That," Ahsoka said and paused a moment as though collecting patience, "makes absolutely no sense."

The Sith crossed his arms and shrugged in a manner that gave Rex the strongest sense of déjà vu, like he'd witnessed this interaction before.

"Well, if you will continue to insist on not having a bodyguard and leaving alone, I am sure I can find something else for the commander to do in my service," Vader replied. "Perhaps—"

"No," Ahsoka cut in quickly. Then she huffed and said, "Damn you."

"I knew you would agree."

What the hell was going on?

"Only because it's Rex. And only because I know he won't get in my way and knows I don't need a bodyguard," Ahsoka insisted again.

"Make no mistake, Ahsoka. His job is to protect you and be the head of all your security-"

"_All_ my security. Vader, that's more than just a bodyguard."

Vader continued without pause, "But Commander Rex works directly for me." Vader turned to look at Rex. He felt a light pressure around his neck as the Sith added, "And if anything happens to her, I will hold you and anyone you decide to employ in the endeavor to keep her safe directly responsible for it."

"Vader, I run a rebellion and frequently go on missions. I'm going to get hurt sometimes."

Rex's confusion overrode his concern at the light pressure around his neck.

Vader paused and then amended. "Any _significant _harm then."

"Everything is significant with you," Ahsoka replied with a roll of her eyes.

"Is that clear, Commander?"

Rex looked Vader directly in his mask and said, "Yes, sir."

The pressure disappeared, and Vader turned back to Ahsoka.

"I likely won't be able to see you off at your departure, so go ahead and take this," Vader said, handing Ahsoka a small data chip.

"What's this?"

"Group passes to that planet-wide amusement park you said the twins wanted to go to."

"You're kidding. There's a waiting list half a standard-year-long for the express, premium entry ordering, let alone regular entry."

"I can be extremely persuasive when needed."

Ahsoka gave Vader a wry look before sighing in resignation and saying softly, "I am never going to be able to top this. You win when it comes to birthday presents forever."

"And you win for getting to be there," Vader responded in kind.

Though most of him was utterly baffled by this entire situation and what he was witnessing, Rex got the distinct feeling that something silent had passed between the two.

Finally, Ahsoka said, "Thank you. Not just for the passes, but… you know."

The chevrons on her lekku darkened some…

No way. No. Kriffing. Way.

"This has nothing to do with your inquiry of Commander Rex some rotations ago. This is purely in the interest of keeping you alive so that I won't lose a critical piece of my plan."

Ahsoka smiled softly and raised one of her eye markings in a way that Rex was positive was fond. She shrugged and said, "Thanks anyway."

Then she turned to him and said, "Come on, Rexter."

She headed out the office, but Rex paused to look at Vader, who nodded in a silent dismissal. Then he followed Ahsoka, who waited for him to be beside her before they walked side by side down the hall and away from Vader's office.

After a while of silence, Rex finally said, "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"It's me, Rex. No need to be so formal. But yes."

Old habits die hard, Rex supposed.

"What the kriff?"

Ahsoka laughed. "I know you must have a lot of questions."

"That's an understatement. I haven't been completely out of the loop all these years. I know who Darth Vader is. I know what he's done. General, he killed the Jedi."

"I know."

"And you're working with him."

"To take down Palpatine, yes," Ahsoka replied.

"And to make Vader the Emperor."

"That's the plan for right now."

"And you were in there talking to him like _that _like he doesn't stand against everything you ever fought for," Rex said sternly.

"It seems that way. But I promise you, Rex, it's not. Vader's not all that he seems and lets people think he is," Ahsoka said with a sigh. "And what do you mean by talking to him like _that_?"

"With all due respect, General, I helped Skywalker keep his relationship with Senator Amidala a secret. I know a relationship when I see it," Rex said bluntly, narrowing his eyes at Ahsoka.

"You knew about them too, huh?" Ahsoka asked softly.

Who that spent significant time with Skywalker hadn't known?

"General."

"It's not what it looks like."

"Then what is it?"

"It's… complicated."

"He killed the Jedi. He and Palpatine forced my brothers to betray them. He killed Skywalker."

That got a reaction out of her, guilt tightening her face as she reached over and pulled on her other arm. Finally, she muttered, "He didn't kill Anakin."

"Maybe he didn't fall by Vader's hand, but Vader's responsible. Makes no difference," Rex insisted.

"Maybe," Ahsoka muttered.

It was the way she avoided Rex's gaze that he knew she wasn't being all the way truthful. Not outright lying, but there was something she wasn't telling. He decided not to push her on it. Not yet. She could be as stubbornly reserved as her Jedi master had been.

"How did you end up acquainted with Darth Vader anyway? He's not exactly known for his social personality."

Ahsoka stopped in her tracks, a considering expression crossing over her features before her eyes lit up with mischief, and she grinned at him.

"For me to know, and you never to find out."

She meant it too. Even during their four-day hyperspace journey, she wouldn't reveal her how she got involved with Darth Vader, _the_ Jedi killer, of all people. Instead, they spent the trip catching up, which mostly meant Ahsoka filling Rex in on the Rebel Alliance and revealing to him that she was the mysterious Fulcrum. Somehow, he wasn't surprised that she was the one who took up the reins to fight the Empire or, at the very least, fight Palpatine. When she was done, she found the courage to ask him what happened to the rest of the 501st and the company, the 332nd, that had been sent ahead to secure Mandalore.

"I know…" Ahsoka trailed off and looked away before looking back at him. "I know most of what remains of the clones were phased into Vader's legion, but I didn't see any I recognized. Not personally."

"I don't know," Rex replied honestly. "You know, when that issue with Tups and Fives went down, there was questioning about the chips. A group of us that decided we were going to start our own investigation. We didn't quite buy the reasoning of the Chancellor and the Kaminoans. I volunteered to have mine taken out so we could study it. But it was only something we could dedicate time to between missions, and it had to be secret. Whatever was on it, someone didn't want anyone to know about it. Once Order 66 came down, we were called back to Coruscant. And that's when I put the pieces together about the chips. It was the only difference between me and all my brothers. I deserted first chance I got. I tried to convince some to come with me, that the Empire was wrong, but…"

Ahsoka smiled and placed her hand on his.

"You did the best you could. The Emperor played us all," she said.

Rex shrugged. "Doesn't feel that way. It felt like he could have done more."

On that point, Ahsoka didn't argue with him. Not because she agreed with him. He knew she didn't. But probably because she knew nothing she could say that would convince him otherwise.

He pressed on.

"Anyway heard whispers that chips not only forced obedience but could also legitimately cause instability in those who had close bonds to their Jedi generals and commanders. Many of those got phased out. Some, I heard, didn't wait to be phased out and…"

"You don't have to finish," Ahsoka said to him. She was kind enough not to acknowledge the tears running down his cheeks. "What matters is that you know everything now and that you're still here to do something about the injustice done to you and your brothers and to honor that memory. If you want to."

She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back.

"I want to," Rex replied.

Once on Alderaan, they met with the queen, and after explaining the situation, the dark-haired human woman agreed to arrange forged papers for his citizenship.

"You're a lifesaver, Breha," Ahsoka said to the queen.

"And you better not forget it," Breha teased.

Ahsoka started to reply before that look, so quick that most would have missed it, crossed her face that he'd seen cross all Jedi's face when they were listening to a calling in the Force. The next second, the doors to Breha's throne room opened and in ran two children, right into Ahsoka's legs and hugging her around her waist from either side.

"Mama!" the blonde-haired boy exclaimed, beaming up at her.

"You're back," the brown-haired girl added.

Ahsoka looked down at them both with her arms crossed and a raised eye marking, a slight smile playing on her lips.

"What did I do to earn this welcome?" she asked and then frowned. "Leia. What happened to your hair?"

"Luke cut it," Leia replied in a wry tone.

"She told me to cut it," Luke exclaimed, looking at Leia in betrayal. "She didn't want Lady Song to put her hair in those buns."

"But you cut it wrong," Leia shot back, eyes narrowed and a scowl on her lips.

Kriffing _hell_?

Ahsoka cut in before the children's bickering could continue. "We'll talk about this in detail later. Let me finish this up."

Both children frowned and then seemed to realize that Rex was in the room. They both let go of Ahsoka—Their _mother. _Ahsoka. A _mother_—and turned to look at him bashfully.

"Our apologies for interrupting," the girl, Leia, said in a tone much softer than the one she'd been using just a few moments ago with Ahsoka and her brother. There was a certain lack of sincerity in her tone and a distinct twinkle in her eye that told him she wasn't sorry at all. It was familiar.

"Yeah," Luke said slowly, actually seeming sincere. "Sorry."

Rex was again struck with an odd sense of déjà vu, the same one he got seeing Ahsoka interact with Vader.

Ahsoka chuckled and put her hands around either child's shoulders.

"I'll see you soon. Give me a few minutes," Ahsoka said to them both.

"I'm sure you have a little more time than that. Surely, their tutor is looking for them," said the queen.

Luke and Leia gasped, exchanging a look with each other and then giving their mother sheepish grins.

That was the moment Rex knew who the two younglings reminded him of. This had to be a kriffing joke. Or a bizarre, elaborate dream. But Rex doubted he had the imagination to think up something this insane.

"If you hurry back, I'll pretend not to know you ditched your schooling," said Ahsoka.

The two nodded hurriedly before dashing out the room as quickly as they'd dashed into it.

"Come on, Rex. I'll show you to your rooms and introduce you to the head of Alderaanian security. He'll get you set up so you won't be punished for not doing your job," Ahsoka said as she started out the throne room.

When they were in the grand halls, Rex said, "Ahsoka?"

"The walls have ears, Rex. Even though the palace is relatively safe and secure," Ahsoka warned.

"Those twins. You and the general?" he asked carefully.

Ahsoka balked. "What? No! You know how much he—" She paused before shaking her head. "He wouldn't have done something like that to _her. _I wouldn't have done that to her."

Maybe not. But it had been war. Things happened. He wouldn't have judged them for it. Skywalker's secret relationship hadn't been the only thing happening among the ranks that he'd turned a blind eye to. But he had to ask. He had to know the magnitude of what he was getting into. And things, as they were, weren't adding up.

"But them. The general?" he asked vaguely.

"Yes."

Rex didn't say anything as they continued walking. But something nagged at him. Something missing from all this that would make this entire crazy situation make a lot more sense. Then he remembered the feeling he had while watching Ahsoka and Vader that he'd seen their interaction before. The same feeling he'd had while looking at Luke and Leia a few minutes ago.

"_There's been a mix-up. The youngling isn't with me."_

"_Stop calling me that! You're stuck with me, Skyguy."_

"_What did you just call me? Don't get snippy with me, little one."_

Rex had seen the two interact before. Getting into one of their bickering arguments dozens of times on the front lines of the war.

He was now certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was no dream.

_He didn't kill Anakin._

"Ahsoka," Rex said, abruptly stopping and turning to look at her.

"Rex," Ahsoka began in the sage tone that the old Jedi masters he'd met used to speak in. He wondered what happened over the years that made her seem so much older than he knew she was. She put her hand on his shoulder as she continued, "For everyone's sake, there are certain things you don't need to _actually_ know. The only thing that matters is that I'm the twins' mother."

She smiled a little before continuing down the hall.

Rex stared after her for a moment before letting out a longsuffering sigh and running to catch up with her. Already he felt the onset of a headache. What the hell had Tano and Skywalker gotten him into now?

**End of Part Four**

* * *

**AN: **As one of my readers noted, I foreshadowed Rex's return and that it wouldn't take long for Vader to figure out where he was back in chapter 34. I don't know where he went. My head-canon for this is that Anakin and Rex had some kind of contingency plan for the clones for after the war or... something. I really don't know. Rex is here. That's all that matters. We're going with it.

On another note about Rex, all of the fandom for the last six years or so, interpreted when Rex said in Rebels that he got his chip removed and didn't betray his Jedi that it meant he did it of his own initiative. Now Clone Wars has revealed that didn't mean he literally did it. But he did have it done. And when he got it done, instead of taking the easy route and going along with everything, he didn't turn on Ahsoka. Some of the fandom... have issues with this. If you're one of them, that's your right and your opinion. I just didn't find it contradictory or like it was a lie somehow. For disclosure, I haven't watched most of Rebels except for the Ahsoka episodes. But I went back and watched the clip of this disputed scene, and I also know about the unease Kanan had about Rex. Either way, it doesn't matter in this story. It's already an AU, and this story goes with the initial interpretation of that line.

Anywho. I hoped you enjoyed. Review please!


	40. Part Five: Chapter Forty: Cal

**AN: **Sorry this is late, but the scheduled date to update coincided with Eid, the Muslim celebration of the end of our holy month of Ramadan. It pretty much means I spent a lot of time cooking and spending time with the fam. My apologies for not notifying you all in advance.

* * *

**Part Five  
****Chapter Forty: Cal**

There were times in the last five years where Ahsoka felt like her work building the Rebellion seemed fruitless. Slow going as things were, even with Vader's help, Diya's network, Barriss' outreach, and the thousands of rebellion cells, contacts, and sympathizers, it felt like she did a lot of work for little reward. And while she didn't doubt Vader's ability to destroy Sidious with his mind and heart set to it, Ahsoka sometimes questioned the necessity or the effectiveness of the Rebel Alliance. She definitely doubted its magnitude.

But after five years, she was finally seeing the work she'd put in over the years amount to something more tangible with the construction of their first consolidated Rebel Alliance base. An official headquarters.

They were still careful. Only abandoning the old protocol of keeping the cells isolated for their most stable and trusted cells while keeping the rest in the shadows until they were stronger. But now things seemed a lot more real. Now she was sure that it wouldn't be very long before they could officially wage the Emperor's war.

"It's something. Isn't it?" Bail asked, coming to stand next to her from where she was observing workers in their hanger. "To finally have something tangible after all these years of work."

"Yeah. It is," Ahsoka replied.

While she and Bail were close colleagues as it pertained to Rebellion work, Ahsoka didn't have the same personal closeness and friendship with him as she had with his wife. Mostly because her friendship with Bail had to maintain the precarious balance that came with your subordinate being your acquaintance. Part of High Command thought she was too young and too inexperienced to lead the Rebellion. Bail generally defended her and her choices, even if he would disagree with her in private. But she couldn't afford to show any weakness before him that he might inadvertently mention to those he was close to and might use it in the case against her. Not to mention, he didn't need to be accused of having a bias toward her.

"Have you decided? About Mandalore?" he asked.

Ahsoka sighed. "I'm going to see what they have to offer."

Weeks ago, insurgents on Mandalore reached out to the rebellion with what they claimed was valuable information about a top-secret Imperial project. There was always a fair amount of caution when a planet reached out to them with what they claimed was classified Imperial information, but Mandalore was a special case. A long history of civil war, regime changes, terrorist groups, and betrayal. When the Empire rose, they declared Mandalore a hostile planet. The Mandalorian civil war was brought to a swift end by the Empire's brutal newly appointed governor, forcing the Mandalorians fighters to put their differences aside and go into hiding. Lately, there had been whispers of rebellion rising again on the planet. Still, no one forgot how volatile and, frankly, wishy-washy the planet could be depending on its interests. Against the Empire today, sure. But it was possible they'd be against the rebellion in the next. Mandalore was only loyal to Mandalore.

"Rex is arranging transport for me," Ahsoka added.

"And what's your contact's opinion about all this?"

"They think I should exercise a very healthy amount of caution."

Ahsoka was severely understating Vader's opinion. He'd all but tried to forbid her to go, saying that any classified information on an Imperial project that Mandalore thought they had he could find a way to access. Ahsoka argued that was only true if it wasn't a project Palpatine was keeping secret from him.

"They don't think you should go at all," Bail said bluntly.

"Pretty much."

"Did they have any idea what Mandalore's intel might be?"

"Hard to know. They've got a lot of Imperial clearance, but the Emperor's paranoid. No telling what things they don't know."

They both watched a ship dock into the bustling hanger, a stark contrast to the supply ships that continued to come in. Ahsoka assumed it would be her transport to Mandalore.

Finally, Bail said, "I suppose what really matters is whether or not you're sure about this."

"Mandalore was the last mission the Council approved for me before everything went to hell," Ahsoka stated. "They sent a company of the 501st ahead since they were docked on Coruscant, and I was going to follow. Bo-Katan was expecting me. I told her I'd help her and her people, and I never went."

"Through no fault of your own, my young friend."

"I know. I still feel guilty that I wasn't able to help when I promised I would. I feel like I at least owe them this now that I'm in a position to go. It feels right," Ahsoka finished, sensing Rex come up behind her.

"Your transport to Mandalore's here. We're all set to leave when you're ready."

"Thanks, Rex," Ahsoka said, starting to leave.

"Ahsoka," Bail called.

Ahsoka turned back to him and raised an eye marking in askance.

"Be careful. May the Force be with you."

Ahsoka smiled. "May it be with you as well," she said before leaving with Rex. "So, who's my ride."

"A team your intelligence made contact with about a year ago. They've got a lot of experience getting in and out of Imperial entanglements," Rex said. "They were the group that infiltrated the Inquisitor base on Nur a few years back? You know about it."

Ahsoka paused mid-step at that. Knew about it? Of course, she did. That incident happened not long after she and Vader finally came to temporary agreement about their actions toward the Jedi. A small group, consisting of two Jedi, had discovered a hidden Jedi holocron of all the known Force-sensitive children in the galaxy before the Order had fallen. Vader desired to keep it out the Emperor's hands as much as he wanted to keep it out the Jedi's, who presumably wanted to begin the work of rebuilding the Jedi Order. Ahsoka, to Vader's shock, agreed. Long story short, the Jedi managed to escape Vader with the holocron after he killed the Ninth sister. She and Vader had apprehensively waited for months to hear whispers and rumors of the well-intentioned but incredibly reckless training of new Jedi and the rising of a new order. Nothing had ever come of it that they knew.

"Jedi?" Ahsoka asked evenly.

"Look. I know you've got some vendetta against the Jedi—"

"It's not a vendetta. Vader has a vendetta. I just prefer to keep my distance from them," Ahsoka cut in. Rex didn't at all look convinced.

"Regardless, it's going to be dangerous getting onto Mandalore and back out. And this group has a lot of experience doing that. If they can dodge Inquisitors for this long and escape Vader, they can definitely get us in and out of Mandalore before anyone notices you're there," Rex pointed out.

Ahsoka didn't have an argument against that as she and Rex stepped off the lift and walked into the hanger toward the newly docked ship. Standing at the bottom near the ramp were a group of five people. A young human male with reddish-brown hair with a droid sitting on his shoulder and a lightsaber attached to his belt, only just concealed by his poncho. A human female with brown skin, dark eyes, and short hair, cut and cropped just an inch or two long. A pale human woman with white hair. A Latero male. And…

"Obi-wan," Ahsoka stated.

He turned to her from where he was communicating with an excited Artoo and said, "You must have gotten rusty over the years if you didn't sense me as soon as I landed."

Surprised by his teasing, but not displeased, Ahsoka said, "Or maybe you've just gotten better at hiding yourself, old man."

He smiled a little at her and then said, "It's good to see you doing well, Ahsoka."

"Good to see you too."

And she meant that. Her initial anger at Obi-wan had long settled at the slow realization that he had been hurt by this entire mess as much as she had. Her words to him had been sincere and true, but it hadn't been fair to take her anger out on him and then ignore him. Especially so after she'd given Barriss a second chance. They had all been caught between a rock and a hard place during the war. Besides, Obi-wan had never been as outwardly and openly vocal about things as she and Anakin had been back when they were all Jedi. Outwardly, he would have pretended to stand with the Council at her trial but all the while been plotting with Padmé on how to get Ahsoka out of prison and smuggle her off the planet if worse came to worst. And he would have told Anakin at the very last minute so he wouldn't have blown the plan with his paranoia and overprotectiveness. It was the kind of duplicity that would make him a great spy if he were ever looking for a change in profession.

"Knight Ahsoka Tano," said the brown-skinned human woman.

"I apologize. But have we met before?" Ahsoka asked politely, falling easily into the role of Rebellion leader.

"No," the woman assured with a laugh. "But your reputation in the Order precedes you. About as much as your master's did."

"Yeah…" Ahsoka said a little bashful. She had become a bit of a troublemaker toward the end.

"I'm Cere. And this is Merrin, Captain Greez, and Cal," the woman said, pointing to the pale woman, the Latero, and the human male, respectively. "You already know Obi-wan." The little droid on Cal's shoulder made a series of indignant beeps that caused Cere to laugh. "And, of course, how could I forget about BD-1."

"Great to meet you and all," Greez cut in and then looked at Rex, "But you told me it would just be you and the Fulcrum. Not both of you and another Jedi. It's going to be a tight fit as it is.

"Good thing Fulcrum is me," Ahsoka said.

"You're the Fulcrum," Cal said, voicing everyone's surprise.

"Yes."

"But you're…" Cal trailed off.

"Young?" Ahsoka asked. She got that one a lot. She was younger than all of High Command, in fact, by ten years at least.

"A Jedi," Cal said as BeeDee climbed off Cal's shoulder and made his way over to Ahsoka.

"I renounced the Jedi way a long time ago. For personal reasons. You can just call me Ahsoka." She said as she knelt down to pet Beedee. "But if you insist on formalities, Fulcrum is fine. Most people just call me General." Before anyone could ask her questions about that, she stood back up with Beedee on her arm and began to make her way up the ramp to the ship. "Ready to go?" she asked, and then turned back to look at the group. "Or was there anything I can do to accommodate you before we leave?"

"Aren't you a bossy one?" Greez said as he followed behind Rex back into the ship.

"I've earned it over the years," Ahsoka replied.

"Still cocky as always. Good to know some things don't change," Obi-wan said as everyone climbed into the ship.

"But speaking of something that did change, when did you decide to get off Tatooine and rejoin the rest of the galaxy?" Ahsoka asked as she sat in the communal area of the ship.

"A very long story that involved my companions visiting Tatooine in search of kyber crystals and nearly having their ship destroyed by Jawas," Obi-wan said lightly.

"Kyber crystals on Tatooine?" Ahsoka asked. "Now, that's a story I have to hear."

"No," said Greez from the cockpit as he got them ready for takeoff. "It's really not."

Beedee made a noise of disagreement as he jumped from Ahsoka's lap and went to talk to Artoo.

"Yes," Merrin agreed with the droid, amusement flitting in her eyes despite her passive expression. "It really is. And we have a long way to Mandalore."

While Obi-wan recounted the story of how he met his new companions, Ahsoka observed him. Getting off Tatooine had definitely done him some good. He didn't seem as worn down and weary as he had when she'd visited him a little over five years ago. Less lost and with a stronger sense of direction and determination to do something rather than sit off to the side. Ahsoka wasn't sure what it was about the group he'd helped that convinced him to leave his solitude. And while she was happy about whatever it was that had, she couldn't help but be a little upset that she hadn't been able to. Then again, she'd been in just as bad a place mentally as Obi-wan had at the time. Them taking more time apart had probably been for the best.

"Well, certainly looks like you haven't lost your penchant for getting up to trouble," Ahsoka said once he was finished. Then she stood and said, "If you all will excuse me. Unfortunately, my work doesn't stop even during a hyperspace journey."

Ahsoka left the communal space and settled into a little nook in some kind of tool room at the back of the ship, getting the distinct feeling that she was the subject of conversation right now. Of course, she was. Jedi didn't just renounce the Jedi way often. Not without turning to the dark side usually.

Barely half an hour later, she heard someone come into the room and looked up in time to see Cal starting to back out the room.

"Sorry," he said. "I didn't know you were in here. I just came to…" He glanced at the workbench. "Anyway… I'll leave you to your work."

"You're a mechanic?" Ahsoka asked, using the tone she used on the twins when they were afraid she might disapprove of something they were doing when she was really just curious to see what they were up to.

"Not really… I mean, I know my way around machines. I used to work in a junkyard on Bracca, but I wouldn't call myself a mechanic," Cal replied with a shrug. "I just tinker with things sometimes."

Ahsoka cracked a small smile, Cal's statement reminding her of Vader. Tinkering with things was one of the habits he hadn't abandoned from his former life, and he'd passed it down to Luke, especially, and Leia. Almost all their visits to Vader consisted of the three tinkering on some machine or another. Whether that was Artoo's maintenance ("Who are you letting maintain Artoo on a regular basis, Ahsoka? Clearly, they have no idea what they're doing. Why would they mess with the circuitry for him to use his rocket boosters?" "Artoo has rocket boosters!" "Don't let your father give you any ideas. I can ground you." "Mama, you never let us have _any_ fun.") or modifying their juvenile speeder bikes ("Vader, they're not supposed to be that fast. They're juvenile bikes for a reason." "Juvenile for non-force-sensitive children with slow reflexes."). When they weren't with Vader, Ahsoka frequently found the twins had taken apart an electronic and modified it, mostly for harmless pranks on the Alderaanian palace staff. After they'd accidently fried the motherboard on one of her datapads in their tinkering, Ahsoka made sure to keep her important electronics well hidden from them.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Ahsoka said, "Please. Feel free to tinker. I don't mind."

"I… Thanks," Cal said as he went to the workbench.

"No need to thank me. This ship is your home. If anyone should feel like they're intruding, it's me."

She went back to looking over the specs and the reports for their new rebel base, as he tinkered with something at his desk. It wasn't very long later that she picked up on a few stray emotions coming from Cal. Confusion, wonder, curiosity. Emotions that most Force users would have barely been able to pick up with Cal's sufficient shielding. But most Force users weren't Fore empaths like she was either.

"Whatever it is, you can ask," Ahsoka stated.

Cal looked up, startled. "I don't… I mean…"

Ahsoka raised her eye marking.

"You renounced the Jedi," he stated.

"Yes."

"Why?"

There was no judgment in his tone, something Ahsoka found she appreciated a lot more than she thought she would have. She supposed she'd gotten so used to the Council's or a master's disapproval back at the temple that she assumed any Jedi would disapprove similarly of her unorthodox ways.

"After everything happened," Ahsoka began, knowing Cal would know what she meant by everything, "I realized that I had to find my own way to survive in this darker galaxy. And the path that doing that took me was not one of a Jedi."

Ahsoka then unclipped her lightsaber, showing Cal her white blade.

"The white of this blade means that I have no alliance. To either the light or the dark. I only serve the Force for the sake of the good of the galaxy," she finished explaining.

"That's an interesting outlook."

"Well, it's certainly not what they taught us at the Jedi Temple," Ahsoka replied gently. She clicked off her lightsaber and extended her lightsaber to him. "Feel it for yourself."

One moment, Cal had taken the lightsaber from her hands, and the next, he'd fallen against the workbench while holding his head as though suddenly overwhelmed.

"Cal," she asked, getting up from her nook and starting to go to him.

"I'm fine. I'm… Here," Cal said, hastily handing her back her lightsaber.

"Are you okay?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yeah. I just…" Cal shook his head.

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes in suspicion, wondering what had come over him. She'd handed him her lightsaber and then—Kriff.

"You can use psychometry," she stated.

"Yes," he admitted simply. "I've gotten a lot better at controlling it over the years, but items with strong emotional residue still overwhelm me."

"What did you see?" Ahsoka demanded evenly.

Cal avoided her gaze.

"What. Did. You. See?"

"I saw… I saw your younglings. Your kids. How afraid you were for them when the Empire first rose and how you almost fell to the dark side," he replied.

Sensing that he was holding back, Ahsoka demanded, "What else?"

"I saw their dad. I think. You were angry with him. And afraid of him. Was he part of the GAR? Did he become an Imperial even though…?"

"Yes," Ahsoka stated simply.

"Your kids. Are they the reason you renounced the Jedi?"

"Part of it." Ahsoka hoped her agitation wasn't obvious. Finally, she said, "Cal, you can't tell anyone what you saw."

"I didn't plan to," Cal said, a sincerity coming off him that put Ahsoka at ease.

At worst, it seemed he only managed to pick up a few flashes of history that could in no way give him the complete story. He obviously hadn't seen Padmé give birth. And he hadn't recognized Anakin for the Jedi he'd been or seen that he'd fallen to the dark side. She could work with the assumptions he made from what he'd gotten.

Cal was still giving her a considering look, though.

"What?"

Cal shook his head. "Nothing," he answered before leaving the room.

Ahsoka sighed. Now she'd have to keep an eye on him.

Why couldn't anything ever be simple and straightforward?

* * *

**AN: **Surprise to everyone who kept asking me about Obi-wan. I told you he'd be back. And he gets a lot of screen time in this part. Also, if you're not into gaming, you don't know the people that Obi-wan hitched an adventure with. They're from Star Wars: Fallen Order. I haven't played the game, but I've watched the gameplay from beginning to end, and it's awesome both as far as gameplay and story. Cal has a great character arc, and it explores his journey to becoming a Jedi Knight without the order and despite the Order's faults which he decides they can change going forward into the future. Look it up on the star wars wiki if you're interested. Or go on youtube and watch story progression videos.

Hope you ejoyed. Review, please! I appreciate all your insights!


	41. Mandalore

**Chapter Forty-One: Mandalore**

Their team agreed to leave Greez, Merrin, and Artoo behind with the ship while Cal, Cere, and Obi-wan accompanied Ahsoka and Rex to the Rebel Mandalorian camp. Ahsoka would have liked Diya to be here, but the girl was in the Outer Rim on a mission that she would only give Ahsoka vague details about and would have taken too long to rendezvous with them. Ahsoka decided not to ask exactly what the girl was doing in the Outer Rim. Diya was a lot less reckless and much better trained in combat than she'd been almost five years ago. As long as she was still maintaining her duties in the rebellion, Diya could do what she wanted in her free time. Still, Ahsoka had a feeling she should ask Vader if he knew anything about what Diya was up. They hated each other, for sure, but maybe Sabé had asked for Diya's help. She knew the two were frequently in contact and sometimes even commiserated on their respective employers.

Ahsoka shook her head. What Diya was up to could wait, especially in light of her current problem.

"Every time I think your Jedi stuff can no longer surprise me, something happens that surprises me," Rex said to Ahsoka as the Mandalorian rebels led them to their leaders. "It's a wonder you've managed to keep you and the General's batchlings secret as long as you have."

"I've got a Force bubble around us. No one can hear us," Ahsoka commented. "You can stop calling them me and Vader's batchlings for right now."

Rex shrugged. "It's what everyone thinks happened anyway. Point still stands."

"How was I supposed to know he had psychometry?"

"You wouldn't have ever found out if you weren't willy-nilly letting people hold your lightsaber."

"I was trying to give him more understanding. It's one thing to tell someone how something works in the Force, but you can't really understand without feeling it."

"He got more understanding, alright," Rex responded dryly.

"He didn't find out anything. He didn't even recognize Anakin."

"And all it will take is for him to find some old holo that managed to escape Palpatine's censorship for him to put the pieces together. And then our resident Darth is going to be even more furious than he's going to be when he finds out this happened."

"That's why we're not telling him."

Rex gave Ahsoka a pointed look. "And if the kid starts talking."

"He told me he wasn't." Rex gave her that look again. "He was sincere. I believe him."

"Vader won't."

"Which is why we aren't telling him. He'll try to find a way to make sure Cal's killed to ensure his silence."

"In a hypothetical scenario, if Cal did open his mouth, what's the worst that would happen? A witch, another Jedi, and that captain know. Kenobi already knows, so he's a non-factor," Rex said dismissively.

Ahsoka didn't reply. Most people would have mistaken that as her contemplating. Rex wasn't most people.

"Kenobi does know, right?" Rex asked.

One of these days, Ahsoka was going to see if Rex was willing to test his Force sensitivity.

"Kenobi doesn't know?" Rex asked incredulously.

"I was planning to tell him. I was! But when I went to see him, we were both in a really bad place, and I was a lot angrier at the Jedi than I thought I was. And it had been a rough couple of years, and he was a convenient target."

"Was this before or after you hooked back up with the General?"

"After."

"Serious?" Rex asked, unimpressed. "You can forgive him for a couple of genocides and work out that he was a victim of a bigger scheme, but you hold a grudge against Kenobi?"

"I hadn't really forgiven Vader back then… and we certainly weren't friends again at the time. I just needed him more than I hated him."

Rex scoffed. "Bantha shit."

"I know! I'm going to tell him. I just… didn't know when. And I didn't expect him to show up on the rebel base."

"Welp, I'm sure we'll have plenty of downtime in the next couple of days. Plenty of chances to tell him about your kids and about Vader."

"Are you insane? The twins are one thing. But Vader? Last time they met, they tried to kill each other. He'll think Vader's corrupted me or that I'm blinded by my feelings or something."

"Are you?"

"No," Ahsoka answered quickly. Rex gave her a skeptical look. "I'm not."

"That's hard for me to believe, considering the last time I saw you two together, you were flirting with each other."

"We weren't flirting," Ahsoka disagreed. "Besides, you caught us on a good day. Most of the time we're down each other's throats." Rex raised his eyebrows. "Not like that, Rex! Goodness. Give me a little credit. I mean we're always bickering about one thing or another."

"You were doing that during the Clone War," Rex reminded.

"But back then, there usually wasn't a risk of lightsabers getting involved."

Rex sighed, muttering more to himself than to Ahsoka, "Why are all the Jedi I get involved with so insane?"

Ahsoka relinquished the Force bubble around her and Rex as they were marched into the Rebellion camp. The camp looked as half organized as her new Rebel base was. Ahsoka guessed that recently they'd been forced them to flee their old camp to start a new one in a dark once-abandoned dome city on their planet's surface. They were led down a row of metal trailers, all the way to the biggest one at the end. Their escorts stopped right at the bottom of the steps and turned to them.

"Your weapons," the Mandalorian escort said.

Ahsoka felt everyone's eyes move to her.

"You'll understand our apprehension," Ahsoka began after a moment of consideration, "about giving up our weapons when you all are so heavily armed. Surely warriors of such caliber as the Mandalorians aren't really afraid of a few lightsabers?"

Ahsoka sensed Obi-wan's and Rex's unease at her thinly veiled insinuation, both unsure how the Mandalorians would take it.

"I could ask the same of the Jedi and blasters."

A few weren't the problem, Ahsoka thought to herself. It had been blasters in the hands of thousands of clones descending from a Mandalorian that helped kill the Jedi. Their odds here were better, and Ahsoka had already categorized possible escape routes, evaluated the weaknesses in security, and figured out who she would need to take out first if things got ugly. With or without her lightsaber. Still.

"You're the one who called us here with vital Imperial intel. If you knew what to do with it, you wouldn't have requested that I come to your planet to discuss it. So we either keep our weapons, or you can escort us back out, and we'll find our way off Mandalore," Ahsoka replied evenly.

It wasn't a bluff. At the worst, she'd have to contact Vader and ask if he knew about any Imperial projects that would have made Mandalore get over their pride to contact the Alliance. If he didn't know about them, then he could send one of his spies or one of the maidens to find out.

"It's okay," said a voice at the top of the steps. "Let the Fulcrum and her entourage keep their weapons. Besides, you've heard the rumors of her prowess. Taking her lightsabers isn't going to make much of a difference if she decides to fight us."

The escort stepped to the side to let Bo Katan down the steps. She stopped directly in front of Ahsoka and said, "It only took you seven years to get here, Tano."

"Well, you know. Got tied up being betrayed by the government I served and then hiding from the Empire while building a rebellion," Ahsoka responded with a shrug. "And then when one of my agents tried to get in contact with you, you turned them away."

"So you're the Fulcrum," the woman stated more than she asked. "Not what I was expecting." She paused before saying, "Good."

Bo-Katan then turned and gestured for Ahsoka and her team to follow her inside.

Later, Ahsoka would wonder how she kept her composure when she laid eyes on the second older human woman in the room. Probably a combination of falling back on old Jedi teachings, always practicing a blank face as to not give away her secrets, and the patience she had to exercise during High Command meetings. Whatever aided her, it did so long enough to let her take a deep breath, gain a hold of her rising anger, and calmly say her next words.

"Clear the room," she said in a light, even tone.

"General," Rex said slowly.

"I said, clear the room," Ahsoka repeated. "Except Master Kenobi."

Rex sighed and gesture for everyone to leave, very purposely brushing his shoulder against Ahsoka's. Ahsoka sent a dark glare his way to which Rex gave her a disapproving look.

Once everyone cleared out and the door was secure, Ahsoka summoned a seat to herself with the Force, sat down, and crossed her arms. Then she said, "One of you is going to explain to me right now why I'm looking at a dead woman who very clearly isn't dead."

The dead woman being Satine Kryze.

The official reports said she'd been violently overthrown after Darth Maul betrayed Bo-Katan and Death Watch. The unofficial report to the Council that Ahsoka got access to when they'd assigned her the Mandalore mission and from what she'd pieced together from Anakin and Obi-wan included the facts that Obi-wan had been present, and Maul's takeover was an elaborate revenge plot against Obi-wan.

In all reports, Satine Kryze was dead, a conspiracy that was undoubtedly orchestrated by the three left in the room with her.

The three in the room exchanged a look before Obi-wan said, "She was gravely injured. We weren't sure she was even going to live. Maul did think she was dead. We decided the deception was necessary to keep Maul from pursuing her again. You would have learned that if you'd had the opportunity to get here during the war. It wasn't intended to stay a secret forever."

"Then, the Empire rose. They ran Maul off-planet, but we still had to run into hiding without the resources to resist."

"The Rebel Alliance has been reaching out to you for years to get you to join. You've always refused," Ahsoka pointed out.

"Mandalore has had its fair share of governments with their own self-interests intervening in matters that aren't theirs for nothing in return. And yes. I know we called on the Republic for help to take back Mandalore, but look what the Republic turned into. It's clear more than ever that Mandalore is going to be on their own," Bo-Katan said.

"Not to mention," Satine said, speaking for the first time, "that while I have conceded to my sister the fact that we may be forced to resort to some violence in an effort to defend ourselves, I had no desire to ally with another warmonger."

Ahsoka opened and closed her mouth, taken aback by the accusation. Some members of High Command had implied it but had never said it to her face.

"I'm no warmonger!" she finally exclaimed.

"That's not what our intel says about you," Satine continued.

"Don't believe everything you hear. The stories of my ruthlessness are greatly exaggerated."

"The Zaddja incident?"

"They attacked my exploratory scouting crew first."

"Nal Hutta."

"I couldn't let my identity get back to the Empire."

"Regardless, one could accuse you of instigating the Empire."

"Instigating the Empire? Are you listening to yourself?"

"Whether we agree with them or not, they are the legitimate government. It was your senate that voted the Empire into existence."

"Based on lies, deception, manipulation, and outright treason!"

"From a point of view."

"From a—" Ahsoka cut herself and rolled her eyes. "No wonder you and Obi-wan dated. That's his favorite phrase."

"It doesn't defeat the point."

"The point is that it doesn't matter that it was legal. It was wrong. And when the law and the government are wrong, the only right thing to do is resist," Ahsoka shot back. "Palpatine started this whole mess by orchestrating a war and annihilating the Jedi Order. " Ahsoka turned to Obi-wan, "Is your girlfriend serious right now?"

"Ahsoka," Obi-wan said, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose

"She attacked me because I'm not under the delusion that we're going to avoid war with the Empire. Especially when the Empire and Palpatine started everything," Ahsoka snapped.

"Pardon me if I'm not particularly eager to team up with the illustrious leader of the Rebel Alliance whose stories of ruthlessness and battle hunger is only rivaled by Darth Vader's," Satine said wryly.

Ahsoka snorted. "I am _nowhere _near as ruthless and battle-hungry as Darth Vader," she assured. She knew that personally. "But if you think I am, then me and my envoy will just be on our way. And you can figure out what to do with your intel."

Ahsoka let the ultimatum hang in the air while Bo-Katan turned to her sister and gave her a stern look.

"She's the only one who might be able to do something about what we found," the woman said with a stern look.

Satine looked like she wanted to argue, but sighed and said, "My sister's right. The intel we found is more important than our differences in politics and how to deal with the Empire. If we didn't think that, we wouldn't have contacted you."

"You're the one who started hurling insults," Ahsoka said, not quite ready to put her differences aside. Obi-wan gave her a longsuffering look that used to only be reserved for Anakin. Ahsoka was caught between rolling her eyes and smiling. She ended up doing the former. "Fine."

She comm'd everyone back in. If anyone noticed the tension, they didn't comment.

Bo-Katan didn't waste any time as she took out a small round device and clicked the button to show a picture of a large round, not even quarter-finished piece of tech.

"What's that?" Ahsoka asked.

"Got this from a reliable source who got it from a reliable source of his. It's a space station. According to the intel, it's even larger than the designs for the Super Class star destroyers the Empire is rumored to be designing," Bo Katan explained.

The Super Class star destroyers weren't a rumor. Vader showed her the schematics for them right after their mission on Eriadu. He'd been complaining about the flaws and inefficiency in the designs of the terrible war machines. When Ahsoka asked if he was going to make his complaints to the emperor and the engineers, he'd scoffed and asked why he'd give his enemy a possible advantage by making his weaponry top notch. He'd save his own ideas for when he was emperor.

"It's the size of a small moon specifically," Satine added. "Supposedly, it has the capability to destroy planets."

"That's impossible," Rex said.

"I wouldn't say that so quickly," Ahsoka said grimly. "I grew up witnessing the impossible."

"That may be true," Obi-wan agreed, "But the kind of power a weapon that can destroy planets would need is astronomical."

"Like kyber crystals?" Cal asked.

Ahsoka turned to look at the young man. "What do you know?"

"I don't know anything. I just know that a couple of years ago, I went to Illum in search of a new crystal, and they'd mined nearly all the kyber from the caves I could actually access. I wondered why. Seems like they could have just made it an impenetrable Imperial stronghold if they wanted to keep Jedi from daring to venture back there," Cal said with a shrug.

Cal looked to Cere, who nodded in agreement and said, "He's right. They had an extensive operation going on there. And there's no telling how many other planets with kyber the Empire is mining in the same way."

They wouldn't need to mine the kyber for the Force-sensitive children Ahsoka knew the emperor was kidnapping and grooming for his service. Still…

"Who did you get this information from?" Ahsoka asked. "You trust your source. But just how reliable are his sources?"

"We don't know," Bo Katan admitted. "That's why we called you here. We have the coordinates for where this thing is at."

"You want us to destroy it before it's anywhere near working order," Ahsoka stated.

"We want you to investigate it first, and if it is true, destroy it. Something we don't have the resources to do," Satine admitted.

Ahsoka resisted the urge to point out that Satine had argued against her "warmongering" tendencies but didn't mind requesting them for Mandalore's benefit to destroy a possible planet-destroying machine that they weren't sure existed.

The emperor kept Vader out of the loop of a lot of things until Vader stumbled upon it or proved himself worthy of knowing about. Still, Ahsoka was certain Vader would have known about this. He was well-acquainted with the top engineers and battle station designers in the Empire. Someone would have told him about it, even if the emperor hadn't. If this planet-destroying battle station was real, Ahsoka was positive Vader knew about it. And he hadn't told her.

A quick comm call could confirm it, but he was on Coruscant right now, and intel expired almost as quickly as they could get their hands on it these days. If they didn't move now, it might be too late by the time she could get in contact with Vader.

"We leave in a rotation," Ahsoka decided. "What are the coordinates?"

* * *

**AN: **1) This was my first time ever writing Satine or Bo-Katan, and I feel like I have a better grasp on the latter. I always got the sense that the Clone Wars meant to portray them both of being on two different extremes and that they'd only be able to find a true success in meeting halfway. Hence why at the end of season 7, Bo-Katan seems to realize that even though there are times to pick up arms and fight, there was a time to also stop the fighting and pave a way for a new Mandalorian future. Hence, Ahsoka tells her that her people need a new kind of leader.

2) Satine isn't dead. Something I kinda regretted mentioning in Force Distortion about this world. But I had to stick with it and decided she'd make an interesting foil to Ahsoka as far as their ideals went. Spoiler alert, the two don't get along now and never will in the future. Ahsoka finds uses for Satine's dedication to diplomacy and dedication to non-violence, though.

3) I always planned for someone to eventually call Ahsoka out on her behavior to Obi-wan even though her feelings were valid and could be defended. Rex fit that part so perfectly.

Anywho. Hope you enjoyed. Review, please. I appreciate all your insights.


	42. Geonosis

**Chapter Forty-Two: Geonosis**

Compared to all her other missions, a quick recon to verify the existence of a planet-destroying battle station was a simple task. Either it was there, or it wasn't. Ahsoka hadn't figured out exactly what to do about the battle station if it actually existed.

Despite knowing that he wouldn't answer, Ahsoka tried to comm Vader anyway. Like she expected, he didn't pick up when she found a private moment to call him hours before they left. But even if he had, then what? Either he denied the existence of this super battle station, and she still took a scouting team to look for the object in case it was another thing Palpatine was hiding from him. Or he confirmed its existence, and then they'd have to have a long conversation about why he'd never told her about it. A conversation Ahsoka wasn't prepared to have if Vader proved to have plans for a planet-killing machine other than completely destroying it.

"I know Satine gave you a hard time for it," Bo Katan said, snapping Ahsoka out her thoughts, "But I think you're exactly what this galaxy needs right now. And though my sister doesn't want to admit it, she does too."

Ahsoka didn't look away from the little window where she was staring out into the blue-white streaks of hyperspace. Bo-Katan was the first who dared to approach her since the trip had begun while everyone else gave her wide breadth as a result of her unpleasant mood. She was sure they mistakenly thought she was bothered by her conflict with Satine.

"Good to know you think so, but I don't need you to apologize for your sister. Worse things have been said to me," Ahsoka finally replied.

"I'm not apologizing for her. And she wouldn't want me to. She meant what she said, but that doesn't mean that over the years she hasn't come to understand that the galaxy needs people willing to pick a fight with the right people like you and I. And I've come to realize that we also need people like her," Bo-Katan said. "It just seems like we've been fighting for a long time for nothing. She's weary of it. We both are. We're ready for actual peace and freedom for our people."

"I think we all are," Ahsoka replied. At least she hoped. Because a planet-killing machine wasn't peace and freedom. That was terror. And she wondered if Vader was aware of that.

"You need to get that?"

Ahsoka finally looked away from the window, down at the comm she used to contact Vader on her utility belt. She'd put it on the silent setting, but it didn't stop the red indicator light from beeping to notify her that she had an incoming call.

"No," Ahsoka said, moving the device into one of the zippers on her belt instead of on the clip.

There were too many people around to answer a call from Vader right now. And even if there weren't, what he said wouldn't matter. They were less than a couple of hours out from Geonosis.

If Bo Katan thought the action was strange, she didn't comment on it and instead left Ahsoka once again. Obi-wan approached her next. An expert at dealing with Anakin when he'd gotten into one of his moods after a mission gone wrong or a reprimanding from the Council, justified or not, Ahsoka was unsurprised that her sour mood didn't deter him.

"Credit for your thoughts?" he asked.

"I'm not upset with Satine if that's what you're asking."

"If that's what I thought, I would have asked," Obi-wan said. "Something else is bothering you."

Ahsoka smiled. Even after all this time apart, he still knew her.

"Don't worry. I think I'm a lot more mindful of my emotions now than when I was a Jedi," Ahsoka said, managing a teasing tone.

Obi-wan, however, winced at the comment. Ahsoka frowned, turning from the window to look at him.

"I…" he trailed off before gaining his composure and saying, "I actually owe you an apology."

"An apology?" Ahsoka asked, cutting him off. "If anyone owes the apology between you and me, it's me. I was too hard on you. I had a lot of anger in me back then, justified as it was. But I shouldn't have taken it out on you. You did the best you could. We al—"

"True as that may be," Obi-wan said, holding up his hand to cut her off, "I could have done a better job of listening to you. I understand now that you just wanted me to acknowledge that your feelings were valid. Instead, I dismissed them. And in doing so, I failed you."

The remorse and guilt Ahsoka sensed from Obi-wan didn't seem to just have to do with her, and it didn't take much thought to figure out who else he was thinking about. Vader. Well, Anakin to him. He was thinking about how he might have failed Anakin, how he never got a chance to go back and fix that. And now he didn't want to make the same mistake with her.

"It wasn't all your fault. You tried to make the best out of an awful situation in the middle of a Galactic and personal crisis," Ahsoka finally replied. Both with her and Vader. "I've had a lot of time to think about it over the years."

"Seems we have a lot to talk about."

"Yeah. Over some tea. Maybe," Ahsoka suggested with a shrug. "As long as you make it."

"Hopefully I can procure a stash to last us catching each other up on the last five years. And when I say that, I mean you catching me up on what trouble you've managed to get yourself into."

"Yeah…" Ahsoka said slowly, reaching across her chest with her right arm to hold on to the top of her left arm. She could practically feel Rex's glare on her. "I've got a lot to tell you. Hopefully, you won't hate me or think I'm crazy afterward."

Obi-wan closed his eyes, sighed, and shook his head. "Well, this mission will give you plenty of time to rethink if you actually want to."

"I kinda have to," Ahsoka said, avoiding his gaze. "It's only fair. I should have told you years ago."

Obi-wan raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. She was taller than him now. But somehow he made her feel like the padawan she'd been when both she and Anakin got into trouble during the Clone Wars, and they had to explain themselves. Earlier in the war anyway. Later, they'd stopped caring and were more prone to rolling their eyes than humble shame.

They dropped out of hyperspace over Geonosis before she lost all composure and blurted out all her secrets to him, the skeleton of a massive half-built battle station on an Imperial construction module in the planet's orbit coming into view.

"Well," Obi-wan said, looking out the window with her, "looks like it's real."

"The real question is, will it have the power to destroy planets?" Ahsoka said as she looked at the planet, her earlier sheepishness forgotten. She'd tell Obi-wan about the twins—and maybe Vader—later. She turned away from the window and went to the cockpit.

"Can you get us down to the surface? As close to that manufacturing facility as possible?" Ahsoka asked Greez.

"Definitely. For a battle station that can supposedly destroy a planet, it's remarkably unguarded," Greez replied.

"Because if it really does destroy planets, they didn't want to draw our attention to it," Obi-wan pointed out.

"Especially not mine, but I wouldn't take lack of huge star destroyers and outposts as a sign that it's unguarded," Ahsoka said as she went back to the communal area. "Okay. We're going in this place blind, and there's no telling what we'll run into. We'll split into teams to see what we can find. Anything to confirm what the Empire intends for that thing to be capable of once it's completed and fully operational. Preferably some kind of plans. Cere, go with Obi-wan. Rex, you're with Bo. Cal and Beedee, you're with me. Greez, Artoo, and Merrin. Stay with the ship."

Artoo beeped in protest at being left being.

"I know, buddy. But if all hell breaks loose, I'm going to comm you for immediate evac, and you'll be more help to Greez," Ahsoka replied.

Artoo replied in resigned agreement.

"I don't want this to take too long. If this project is as secret as it is, as soon as we step foot inside, we may sound a thousand silent alarms. If things get too hot, we get out. No questions asked."

"How will we know if things are too hot?" Bo-Katan asked.

"I'll let you know," Ahsoka assured.

They staggered the time each group left for the large factory, with Rex insisting he and Bo go first. That way, Rex argued, he could gauge if anything looked too dangerous for them to handle. Ahsoka thought she could have done that just as well, but her threshold for danger was likely a lot more than Rex's was. And Vader would no doubt keep his word to kill Rex if anything happened to her before it happened to Rex.

Once Rex gave her the clear, she sent Obi-wan and Cere ahead. A short time later, Ahsoka and Cal followed with Beedee riding faithfully on Cal's back. The two groups that came before them had already paved their way ahead, the security already stunned or knocked out to make Cal and Ahsoka's entry easy.

"Where to?" Cal asked as Ahsoka bent down to check one of the guards.

"I'm not really sure," Ahsoka admitted as she stood. "But the lift seems like a good place to start."

After a few minutes of wrong turns later, they found the lift.

"Looks like it needs a key card or something," Cal said.

"Good thing I've got this," Ahsoka said with a grin as she held up the identification data card she'd taken off the guard she checked earlier.

"Weren't you thinking ahead?"

Ahsoka shrugged as she held the identification chip against the data reader. The panel lit up blue, activating the lift and opening the doors.

"You learn to look for this kind of stuff when you've run and overseen as many missions as I have," Ahsoka finally replied. "Surely you've picked up quite a few tricks over the years. It's the only way we survive."

"Yeah."

Ahsoka frowned, pressing the highest floor number that the data card would give her access to. Something in Cal's tone was off. Not like he didn't believe her, but… Ahsoka wasn't sure what to call the feeling.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing."

He was lying. Ahsoka didn't need to sense it in the Force to know that. But if he had something to say, Ahsoka was the safest person for him to say it to. She hadn't paired the younger adult with her for nothing.

They allowed the steam that temporarily obscured their vision when the lift opened to clear. Then Ahsoka and Cal stepped onto the metal railway, high above the manufacturing bowl where large metal parts were being put together. The two stopped at the end of their path to look over the railings and into an expansive bowl that went on in all directions for miles. Based on the size of the station in orbit, Ahsoka was sure there were many more construction bowls across the planet.

Ahsoka knew slave labor was the backbone of the Empire's military machine, but it was another thing to see the atrocity up close and personal. While there were a few humans, the majority of the workers were non-human. Many of them from species that Ahsoka knew to have been ravaged and pillaged by the Empire in the last few years. Especially the wookiees.

A shadow passed over them, and Ahsoka looked up to see a large space shuttle heading to the middle of the dome. It hovered over a large arched piece, and from beneath it, a giant metal claw dropped down. Magnetized, Ahsoka guessed when she watched the metal piece shift into place before the claw was all the way lowered. Then the shuttle lifted into the air, presumably to take the piece to the round skeletal structure hovering in Geonosis' Orbit.

"Even if that thing doesn't destroy planets, it's still going to be trouble," Cal stated as he watched the metal component rise higher into the atmosphere.

"I agree. Come on. There must be somewhere in the facility below that we can find plans or a description or some—" Ahsoka paused, taking her blasters off her hips and whirling around to shoot behind her.

Two guards fell, she dodged the blaster bolt of the one remaining and then shot him too.

"Things getting hot yet?" Cal asked.

"I didn't have to use my lightsabers. So not yet. Come on. Let's get back to the lift."

Ahsoka turned back to where they'd come from, only to see a group of stormtroopers led by electrostaff purge troopers headed their way off the lift.

"On second thought, just follow me," Ahsoka ordered, turning to shoot a guard shooting at them from a higher railing and then running in the opposite direction.

"Don't take this wrong," Cal said, running after her, "but I'm guessing the tales of your single-handedly taking out outposts are exaggerated."

"They're not," Ahsoka said.

"Then why not—"

"Because I'd have to use my lightsabers to do it."

"What do you have against using your lightsabers?"

"They'd make the Empire suspicious that I'm alive. Right now, my lieutenant has them thinking that any supposed sighting of me is just her impersonating me. But she doesn't use lightsabers. She likes her blasters. I only use my lightsabers on a mission if it's absolutely necessary. And if it becomes necessary, I leave no witnesses behind," Ahsoka explained, grabbing Cal and pulling him down a set of metal steps that would take them down into the dome. "But now is a good time for you to use yours."

The troopers shot at them from above. Cal unclipped his lightsaber and then detached it into two pieces so that what Ahsoka thought was only one blade became two. He stopped descending down the steps to deflect the bolts coming their way. One got past him, hitting the railings and causing the stairs to destabilize.

It gave the few heavy troopers amongst them ideas, and they used their powerful guns to destroy the stairs.

"Kriff," Ahsoka said, getting stable long enough to leap over the side of the railings and to the bottom of the dome amongst the group of surprised slaves. They moved quickly to get out the way of the commotion, and Cal landed behind her shortly after.

The troopers managed to follow down the opposite set of stairs. Now having them on even ground, Ahsoka began shooting them down while Cal deflected their return fire and, using his lightsaber as a single blade now, cut down the ones that got too close.

Once the last trooper had fallen, Ahsoka looked at Cal and said, "Not half bad for a Jedi Knight who finished his training without a master."

"Thanks… I guess," Cal muttered. "Wait. How did you know that?"

"I have my ways," Ahsoka said with a smile. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

"Finally too hot for you?"

"Nah. But we're not going to find anything down here. Hopefully, someone else found… something…" Ahsoka trailed off as they found another set of stairs to get back onto the high railway. The darkness of a familiar presence invaded her senses; a presence that simultaneously brought her comfort and dread.

"Kriff," Ahsoka muttered.

"What?"

Ahsoka didn't answer, speaking into her comm. "Rex. Obi-wan. Head to the ship. Now."

"We'd really like to," came Obi-wan's response over the sound of blaster fire, "But our exit is obscured right now."

"Rex," Ahsoka said.

"Give us a minute. We found something," Bo Katan replied.

"It better be a fast kriffing minute," Ahsoka said as she activated the lift. "Obi-wan, Cal and I are on the way to assist. Where are you?"

"I don't know. The guards weren't kind enough to provide us with a location before they started shooting at us. But I'm sure if you just follow the sound of yelling and blaster fire, you'll find us," Obi-wan quipped.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes as the lift took them back down to the main floor, where the power was now out and had a distinct chill. She took Obi-wan's advice and followed the sound of blaster fire through the halls only to stop just as they rounded a left corner. She peered behind her and into the dark hall.

"What's wrong?" Cal asked, looking at her and then following her gaze.

On cue, heavy footsteps echoed in the empty halls, and the distinct sound of mechanical breathing filled the room.

"Oh, no," Cal said.

Ahsoka's sentiments exactly, but for drastically different reasons.

"So we meet again," Vader stated.

Ahsoka sensed both his exasperation and amusement and resisted the urge to release a longsuffering sigh. Cal, she sensed, didn't share her sentiment.

"Lord Vader. So it seems we do," Ahsoka replied. Then she said to Cal, "Keep going. I'll hold him off."

"But that's—"

"I know who he is as well as you do," Ahsoka said, calling her lightsabers to her hand. "I got him. Keep going. And then run. Leave without me if you have to."

"But A—General," Cal began but was cut off by Vader lighting his lightsaber and moving forward to attack.

Ahsoka simultaneously raised her blade to block Vader's while using her free hand to push Cal back into the opposite hall.

"Go," she yelled and then focused on Vader, raising her other lightsaber to strike him only for him to parry the blow and force her back a few paces.

"I cannot allow you to interfere with this operation," he declared.

"Is it really a planet killer?" Ahsoka asked.

Vader didn't answer, his gaze shifting to something behind her.

"Cal. No," Ahsoka said as he made it past her to attack Vader.

Vader used the Force to stay Cal in place.

"Let him go," Ahsoka said, leaping past Cal with her lightsabers.

Vader dropped Cal to ground and tried to grab Ahsoka in the same Force grip. But she gathered the Force around her, exactly the way he'd once shown her when she asked if there was a way to counter the move, and resisted him.

"I told you to get out of here."

"I'm not leaving you with him," Cal said.

If she weren't working with Vader, Ahsoka would commend him for his bravery and loyalty. Right now, though, Cal was more of a hindrance than a help. Not to mention that while Vader agreed not to fight her on her quest to take the Jedi under her protection, she couldn't argue with him killing one in self-defense—sort of anyway.

"Cal," Ahsoka said, still resisting Vader's Force hold. "Trust me."

Cal looked at her in bemusement before some realization dawned in his eyes. A feeling told Ahsoka it had something to do with what his psychometry revealed to him days before, but she would deal with that later.

Cal nodded, getting to his feet and finally running in the opposite direction.

Vader gave up on his Force grip, and their blades met.

"Whoever you brought with you, they cannot be allowed to leave," Vader said.

He began a relentless assault against her, hardly giving her any time to defend herself, let alone ask him what was going through his head. Cal was right about one thing though, even the stories of her prowess were nothing compared to Vader. She could only deal with him because he had no intention of killing her. Eventually, he overwhelmed her.

She caught his blade in a cross between hers and twisted to the side, cutting into the wall and the support behind it next to them, causing the wall to crumble next to them. Not expecting the wall to give so quickly, Ahsoka lost her balance from the overcompensation. Vader took advantage to get his lightsaber out the cross of hers and then throw her into the crumbled wall with the Force. Ahsoka fell backward, landing awkwardly on her right shoulder. It was a wonder it hadn't been dislocated.

Vader approached her, and to anyone else, it would have been menacing. He stopped in front of her, and she felt a thought intrude her mind.

_We'll discuss this at another time._

He started to wave his hand, and Ahsoka felt the beginnings of a Force-induced sleep, something that wouldn't have worked on her if Vader hadn't worn her down first. Still, she resisted him, if only so he knew she wouldn't give up without some semblance of a fight, before she finally decided to give way to it. He'd overpower her anyway.

Something stopped him from completely carrying it through, though. He turned around in time to deflect a blow from a blue lightsaber.

Kriffing kriff, Ahsoka thought to herself as even through the muddle of a half-done Force knock out, she sensed Vader's sadistic glee at Obi-wan's appearance. This mission couldn't get any more disastrous.

For a long time, the hum of lightsabers was the only sound in the dim, empty halls as the former teacher-student pair, one still a Jedi, the other now a Sith, stared each other down.

Finally, Vader rumbled, "Obi-wan Kenobi."

"Darth," Obi-wan said.

Vader bristled, and Ahsoka would have snickered if she weren't trying to think of a plan to get them all out of here through her brain fog. One thing she knew for sure, though, was that she was not going to let the two men force her to choose between them. Not again. She didn't want to make that choice. Not again. Not when she knew the choice she'd make if she had to. If everything went according to plan in a few years, she hopefully wouldn't. And the only way to do that was to stop this fight before it even started.

So she didn't think. She took advantage of her flexibility and Vader's distraction to maneuver to stand between the two men, her back turned to Obi-wan as she faced Vader down. The darkness wrapped around him as his temper flared at her sheer audacity to stand between him and his Jedi prey. Ahsoka also sensed a longsuffering exasperation with her.

"You wanna get to him, you'll have to go through me," she declared, hands on her hips as she glared at him defiantly.

"Ahsoka. Stand. Down," Vader warned

"No," Ahsoka said

"Then I will make you," he said, raising his lightsaber.

"Go ahead then," Ahsoka said. Sensing his confusion when she didn't summon her lightsabers in return, she said, "I'm not going to fight you. If you want to get to Obi-wan, though, you're going to have to put that lightsaber right through me."

Vader's anger worsened at that, and not all of it at her but probably most of it. She got a vivid impression of the thoughts running through his head. He was both pissed that she'd stand between him and use herself as a willing hostage and a little impressed at her audacity and cunning. Her willingness to use what she hoped would be his unwillingness to kill her against him. The willingness to exploit a weakness and vulnerability that he'd both reluctantly and necessarily revealed to her.

He slowly lowered his saber, and Ahsoka knew that not only did she not have a lot of time to figure out what her next step was but also that this tactic wouldn't work again. One thing she'd learned was that you didn't fool Vader the same way twice. Already, she could practically see the mental gears turning in his head to figure out a way to remove her. In the second or two it took for him to do that, she caught him off guard with a kick right into his chest and then Forced pushed him further down the hall. Then she reached into her utility belt and pulled out a detonator. Not a very powerful one, but one that would certainly collapse the hallway and give her and Obi-wan time to get away. Ahsoka tossed the detonator between her and Vader, the device exploding in the hallway as soon as it hit the floor. The building shook, and the hall between them caved in around them.

"Come on," Ahsoka said to Obi-wan before the dust even settled. "That's not going to hold him off for long."

"Ahsoka," Obi-wan said in _that_ tone as they ran toward the exit.

"I'll explain it later," Ahsoka said as she spoke into her comm. "Please tell me everyone is on the ship."

"We are. You're not," came Rex's voice.

"We had to deal with Vader. Be at the entrance," Ahsoka ordered.

"Vader?" she heard Cere ask before Ahsoka cut off her comm.

They were almost at the exit anyway.

Ahsoka and Obi-wan didn't give the ship time to let down the ramp when it appeared in front of them. The two leaped into the air and into the ship as soon as its door opened.

"Go. Go now!" Ahsoka said, Vader's fury suffocating all her senses. He might be willing to spare her the wrath of his power, but that would not extend to everyone else on the ship.

"I'm going. Just give me a minute," Greez yelled.

"Darth Vader can stop ships with his bare hands like a tractor beam if they're close enough. You've got about five seconds," Ahsoka retorted, looking at the entrance for where Vader would walk out.

"How do you know that?" Cere asked.

"Not my first encounter with Vader," Ahsoka replied.

Vader walked out the facility.

Though they were much further from the facility than they'd started, they were still in range for Vader to pull them back to him. When he didn't even try, Ahsoka frowned. Vader didn't give up that easily. Not even when she took a stand against him. Not unless he'd already won.

"Rex. Bo," Ahsoka said, making her way over to the two as the ship door slid close once they got high enough into the atmosphere. "Where's that info?"

Bo-Katan held up a data chip that Ahsoka practically snatched out her hand and fed into Artoo. The little droid took a moment to try to pull up a holo of the information only to end up displaying nothing but static.

* * *

**AN: **1) This chapter is on the long side for me. I try to keep them at 3k words. But this was the best cutoff point, so I just let it be almost 5k words.

2) I really enjoyed writing Ahsoka and Obi-wan interact a lot more than I thought I would. Also, I played off the line A New Hope where Obi-wan calls Vader "Darth" because clearly the reason for it is that Lucas hadn't fleshed out the Sith and Sith titles yet. But now it's clearly been retconned as a reminder of Obi-wan's sass from his youth. I couldn't resist including it here because Obi-wan would absolutely call Vader "Darth" to get under his skin.

3) Vader and Ahsoka are kinda at that point in their professional partnership where their encounters are definitely real fights, but also playful performance so those around them don't figure out that they know each other and are working together. Ahsoka clearly blows that with Obi-wan, but Obi-wan also knows who Vader is and she plans to fill him in. So it wasn't really blowing anything that she didn't intend for him to know anyway.

4) I know this archive and this story is a form of hopeful escapism for many of my readers and even for me. Some of you also may not like this. But I would be totally remiss if I didn't mention what's going on in the real world with the killing of George Floyd, the revolt against police brutality, fascism, and an oppressive police/military state when I'm writing a fanfic about a group of people in a galaxy that rose up to overthrow a police/military state, fascism, and fought for the rights of all beings, in particular, but not limited to a group of people hunted into either extinction or compliance for simply being born a certain way. I'd also be remiss as a black woman if I didn't mention it. If you don't understand what the big deal is or want to help and don't know how, I implore you to do research (cross-reference multiple sources) to expand your understanding and find ways in which you can best assist. Or you can pretend I didn't write this and continue on reading this for your hopeful escapism, and I won't be mad. #blacklivesmatter

Anywho. I hoped you enjoyed. Review please! I appreciate your comments and insights which help me tweak and finetune this story.


	43. Rumination

**Chapter Forty-Three: Rumination**

Even one-handed, Ahsoka could make quick work of training droids on the highest settings. And training droids on the highest settings weren't enough to cool her ever-increasing fury at Vader for ruining her mission like he had. He'd ruined missions before, though. Both personally and by sending an agent to interfere. Sometimes inadvertently. But this time was different. This time he'd not only stopped her from getting information about a planet-killing battle station—the Death Star Rex told her he read in the files—he'd also known about said planet-killing battle station and hadn't thought to mention it to her. Which begged the question, why? The only thing that made sense was that he had every intention of using it one day, and she'd known he wouldn't approve. And if Vader was willing to use a planet-killing battle station, what did that really say about him? Would she be willing to hand over the galaxy to him if that was his plan to enforce his rule?

When all this first started, she hadn't been too concerned about how Vader planned to rule his Empire. Not only did he at least seem to be the lesser evil compared to Palpatine, but it was far enough off that she didn't have to think about it. Now, it wasn't so far off. Now, she had to think about what an Empire with Vader at the helm was going to be like.

Ahsoka sighed, deciding to test her stiff shoulder with a simple kata. She dropped her saber halfway through when the sequences and mentally cursed Vader for throwing her into a wall.

"Kriffing Darth Vader," Ahsoka muttered to herself.

"I definitely understand that sentiment."

Ahsoka didn't turn around as she said, "I was wondering how long it was going to take you to come in here."

"I should have known you knew I was there," Cal said dryly. Then he added, "You're really good. With your sabers, I mean. I haven't met another Jedi dual wielder in a while. Well, you know…"

"That's right," Ahsoka said, remembering how the knight had separated his blade into two. "You're a dual wielder too."

"I wouldn't go so far as to say that. My saber skills are okay, but I've never had the time or anyone to really train me how to balance out the use of both blades at the same time. And experimenting with that in a fight probably isn't a good idea," Cal admitted.

That reminded Ahsoka that Vader lost his arm in a duel using two lightsabers, something he admitted to her when she'd decided to pick up a second blade.

"That is definitely true," Ahsoka said with a smile as she looked at him. "But that's not what you wanted to talk to me about. Is it?"

"I did plan on asking you about it at some point," Cal replied.

"But that's not what you intended this time."

Ahsoka dealt with enough politicians to know when they were trying to get her to let her guard down.

"No," Cal admitted. "I… I came to tell you that when you asked me what I saw when I held your lightsaber, I didn't tell you everything I saw."

"I knew that."

"Yeah. I figured you did. That's why you paired us together on Geonosis. To keep an eye on me and make sure I didn't give away any of your secrets."

Ahsoka smiled. "Part of it. I also like you, Cal Kestis. You remind me of a friend."

Cal's response was silence for a long few moments. Then he said, "Vader. Right?"

"What?"

"The friend. It's Vader. Isn't it? Before he was… well. Vader," Cal said with an apologetic shrug.

"Did you see that when I gave you my lightsaber?"

"Yes and no," Cal replied. "I did see it, but I didn't put it together until you told me to leave you with Vader. At first, I thought you were just brave. But then I realized that you weren't being brave. You weren't afraid of him at all. Like you knew the real him. If I hadn't had those visions earlier, I wouldn't have even noticed."

Ahsoka didn't reply, sensing that Cal had more he wanted to say.

He continued, "That man in the visions. He's the friend. And he became Vader. He's your younglings' father—You don't have to admit to it if you don't want to. And don't worry. I'm not going to tell anyone."

"Not even your Jedi companions?"

"No. But I do want to let you know that I understand. I don't know anything about romantic relationships."

Ahsoka resisted the urge to snort because neither did she, really. But she wasn't telling Cal that.

He continued. "But I just wanted to let you know that I understand if you still care about him. If you still want to save him despite the things he's done. Cere… I don't think she'd mind me telling you this. Cere's former padawan became an inquisitor. Chased us around the galaxy for months trying to kill me and find a Jedi holocron with all the names of the Force-sensitive children in the galaxy that the Jedi knew about. In the end, though, we managed to bring her back. Darth Vader… He…"

"I know very well what Vader is capable of. You don't have to try to spare my feelings. He killed her. Didn't he?" Ahsoka asked, even though she already knew the answer. Vader told her this part of the story.

"Yes. But that's not the point," Cal said, shaking his head. "The point is that if what you're trying to do is save him, if that's part of what you're trying to do with the rebellion, then I think you should. It's what a true Jedi would do if they could. If anyone could do it, it's someone that cares about him, right? Someone he probably still cares about too underneath all that hate."

"Despite everything he's done? Everything he plans to do?" Ahsoka added. She wasn't going to be able to forget the existence of the Death Star for a while. And Force knew she didn't know if she could forgive Vader for it if he really intended to use it one day.

"I think it's worth a shot. And I think…" Cal trailed off. After a few moments, he continued, "I think if you give Obi-wan a chance and some time, he'll feel the same way."

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at Cal, but he didn't let that intimidate him and held his gaze with her. She'd assumed Cal hadn't recognized Anakin Skywalker in his vision of her past. It wouldn't have been shocking if he hadn't. Cal was probably around twenty standard years or so. Maybe a few months younger. That meant he was probably in his early teens when the Jedi fell. Even if he'd had access to holonet wherever he'd been hiding, the Empire wiped out or heavily censored all records of Vader's former life. But Ahsoka hadn't yet been able to glean how close Cal might be to Obi-wan during their trip; how much Obi-wan might have told Cal about Anakin and Ahsoka; what version of the fall of the Republic Obi-wan told to his new companions. Whatever it was, it must have been enough for Cal to piece together Vader's identity with what he'd seen from holding Ahsoka's lightsaber. He had to have. Otherwise, why would he suggest bringing Obi-wan into the loop?

Still, that was a secret she wasn't going to volunteer to Cal. If he was going to play coy, so would she.

Instead, Ahsoka continued to consider Cal very carefully, and he stared back at her, unbothered by her gaze. The fact that he took all the revelations and suspicions he had about her was a testament to how strange a Jedi Knight he was. But maybe that was just because he was a product of war, just like all their generation would have been. War and hiding had a way of putting everything in perspective. Perhaps Cal's untraditional path had given him a perspective that most Jedi wouldn't have shared before the purge. Because the suggestion that they could bring someone back from the dark side was undoubtedly a different outlook from what they'd been taught in the Temple. If Cal could see it this way, maybe when this was all over, she could get other Jedi to see it.

"Thank you, Cal," Ahsoka finally said with a small smile.

He returned it with an easygoing smile of his own.

Force knew she was still going to give Vader a piece of her mind the next time she saw him—in a few days once she grabbed Luke and Leia from Alderaan—but she felt better. Ahsoka would just have to talk some sense into Vader and convince him the Death Star was a bad idea. Either that or be there every step of the way to ruin his plans for it until she forced him into some kind of compromise.

Cal was also right about Obi-wan. It was high time that she got him on board with that plan.

After days of avoiding him, she found him talking to Bail inside the High Commend conference room. There would be no meeting with all the members at the same place for a while, though. So for now, they used it for a secluded place to talk.

"Ahsoka," Bail said. "I haven't seen you since you came back. I heard the mission wasn't successful. I'm sorry."

"It's fine, Bail. We know what we're up against now. The only thing we're lacking is proof. And we didn't lose anyone. I count that as a success every time," Ahsoka replied. Then she said, "Mind giving me the room to talk to Obi-wan?"

"I know an order when it's given, even if it's disguised as a request," Bail teased. Then he nodded to Obi-wan, laid a reassuring hand on Ahsoka's shoulder, and finally left the room.

"I was starting to think I wouldn't get a chance to see you before you left for Alderaan," Obi-wan said when the door slid closed.

"Who told you I was heading there?" Ahsoka asked, a little bashful that Obi-wan had called her out for avoiding him.

"Bail told me it was for rebellion business, not to mention he says the queen has taken quite a shine to you."

"Yeah," Ahsoka agreed. Not wanting the small talk to give her a chance to back out of this conversation, she got straight to the point and said, "I need to talk to you. About Vader. There are some things I haven't told you."

A lot of things. But one step at a time. Truly, though she'd initially been irritated, she understood why Obi-wan had hidden the fact that Satine was alive. He had been protecting her—like she was about to protect Vader.

"Will it explain why you felt comfortable standing in front of him and giving him an ultimatum to kill you if he wanted to get to me, and he backed down?" Obi-wan asked.

"He wants me to be his apprentice," Ahsoka explained. Not the complete truth. Not yet. Baby steps. First, see how Obi-wan took this. "He's decided I'm the only apprentice he'll have. And he wants me to help him defeat Palpatine. I turned him down, of course." Obi-wan didn't need to know that she'd only turned him down on one request. "But he's been persistent over the years. I think the only reason the Empire doesn't know I'm really alive is that he's keeping it from the Emperor."

"Geonosis wasn't the first time you've seen him since Mustafar. Was it?"

"Might have run into a few times since then… I told you. He's been persistent."

"Well. That explains his reluctance to kill you. I suppose," Obi-wan said, giving her look that told he was incredibly skeptical. Ahsoka didn't let that deter her.

"That's not all, though. I'm not going to kill him. And I'm not going to let you or any other Jedi kill him either. I'm going to save him," Ahsoka declared.

Obi-wan gave a disappointed sigh and said, "Ahsoka. You know that's not how this works. I wish it did, but you know. You've seen it firsthand. Once you start down the path Vader did—"

"Forever will it dominate your destiny. Yeah, yeah. I know. Yoda taught that to my youngling class too," Ahsoka said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "But I don't believe that's true. We can bring him back."

"Ahsoka."

"It wasn't all his fault."

"He killed Padmé and their child," Obi-wan argued. "She couldn't even bring him back."

Ahsoka wasn't going to argue the point that Padmé might have actually succeeded if Obi-wan hadn't intervened, but who really knew? It might not have mattered at all. It was in the past.

"That wasn't the Anakin we know. That was him under the influence of the dark side. But there's good in him. I know it. If there wasn't, he'd have killed me a long time ago for defying him instead of letting me go," Ahsoka argued. "I don't think he just wants me as his apprentice. He—"

"The Sith are deceitful. He's preying on your vulnerability to turn you to his side."

"I know it looks that way," Ahsoka admitted. Breha argued that point with her enough times. "But—"

"Ahsoka," Obi-wan said, cutting her off in what was apparent irritation.

Ahsoka paused to give Obi-wan a moment. This was overwhelming, she knew.

Obi-wan took a deep breath, releasing his irritation into the Force before saying, "You don't think I wish what you were saying was true? I tried to get through to him. I… I failed him. I won't fail you by encouraging a foolhardy attempt to do something no Sith has done in history."

"If anyone can do it, it's Anakin," Ahsoka argued. Then she paused, refusing to let her frustration get the best of her. Because not too long ago, she'd been as faithless and heartbroken as Obi-wan. Too blinded by her own hurt and anger to see the truth. It had taken her years to get to this point. Even with Ahsoka's encouragement, Obi-wan would take a while.

Finally, she sighed and said, "I wasn't asking your permission. I just felt I should tell you."

"And when you manage to overthrow Palpatine with your rebellion, and Vader's left behind and if the lack of Palpatine's influence doesn't bring out the good you think is there, then what?" Obi-wan asked.

"I don't know," Ahsoka answered truthfully. That was the million-credit question. But she still had time to figure that out. That was in at least another five years if things went according to her and Vader's timeline. "It's not a problem yet."

Obi-wan let out a longsuffering sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. Finally, he looked directly at her and said, "Ahsoka, you've always been too kind. It's a wonder considering everything, you still are. I don't want to see you hurt. Worse, I don't want you to become just like him."

Ahsoka smiled a little. "I won't. I promise."

"We shall see, I suppose." Obi-wan paused. "Any other grand secrets you have to tell me?"

There were. Two secrets. The first was the twins, but that wasn't something she was going to divulge yet. Not until she was a bit further in convincing Obi-wan that Vader could be reasoned with. Enough obstacles were keeping Vader from his children as it was. She wasn't going to potentially add another. She'd talk to Vader about it at some point.

The second… well, Ahsoka figured she'd let Obi-wan get used to the idea that she planned on saving Vader or, at the very least, helping him manage his darker tendencies. Then she would explain to him that they were allies who spoke to each other on a pretty frequent basis. And might also be a little more than friends. Yeah. Ahsoka would definitely wait on that one.

"Nope," Ahsoka said with a pop that made Obi-wan smile fondly at her. Then she asked, "So when are you all headed out?"

"Not soon. Don't let appearances deceive you, but Cal is the leader of our humble band, whether he knows it or not. And he seems to have taken quite the shine to you. Said you're going to work with him to improve his dual-wielding. Of course, once Cal decided he was going to stay, Merrin—they're quite close—decided she was staying, and then so did everyone else. So we'll be in the employ of your rebellion for a while. At least temporarily. If you'll have us. If you'll have me… if it's not too late."

Obi-wan's shields were strong, but Ahsoka still felt what he really meant. To let him make up his failure to her. To let him keep an eye on her. Possibly even keep her from getting into trouble on what he thought was a no doubt in vain mission to help someone who he thought couldn't be turned back. Ahsoka hadn't needed or wanted that from him for a while. But though she hadn't told Obi-wan everything yet, she didn't hold a grudge against the man anymore.

So it was with complete sincerity that Ahsoka gave him a small smile and said, "No. It's not."

* * *

**AN: **1) I know a lot of you were expecting Ahsoka to come totally clean to Obi-wan about everything, but no yet. You really didn't think it was going to be that easy. Did you? I mean, that would have made this one hell of a short part if it were. And this part still has like six more chapters (I think. I'm too lazy to check). On that note, I'm also taking a very different approach with how we learn what transpired when Vader and Ahsoka inevitably talk about this with an interlude in the middle of the part for reasons I will explain at the end of the next chapter.

2) Can you tell I really love Cal? He's awesome. I don't usually bring video game characters into my stories, but they did such a good job with him and the people in the game. Also, the thing with Cere and her padawan is canon. I did not make that up.

3) Also, I was flattered by all your reviews last chapter. There were some great insights to the last note. Keep that discussion going on more conducive forums than a fanworks archive (lol). Be open-minded. Remember that your experience is likely different from many others. Just because something works for you doesn't mean it's working or can work for others. Stay safe out there.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed! Review, please.


	44. Sabé's Interlude

**Chapter Forty-Four: Sabé's Interlude**

"Can I give you a piece of unsolicited advice, Lord Vader?" Sabé asked as she watched Darth Vader, sans suit, take an extra steroid shot in between his regularly scheduled shots. A necessity after an unexpected encounter with his co-conspirator on Geonosis.

"Not now, Sabé," Vader growled.

Sabé decided to give it to him anyway.

"You and Ahsoka need to figure out a way to communicate better with each other," she said.

"I'd say we communicate very efficiently," Vader replied evenly.

The fact that he even answered told Sabé he was more irritated than usual and looking for a fight. Sabé wasn't going to fall for the bait and give him one. She wasn't Ahsoka, who seemed to live for conflict with Vader as much as Vader seemed to live for it with Ahsoka.

"I'd say you don't. The fact that every time you all meet on opposite ends of the battlefield, you come back with a bad injury is enough evidence of that."

"It's not personal. What do you expect when officially, we're on opposite sides."

"But unofficially, you're working together. And you'd think knowing that, you would both be much more considerate of each other's wellbeing. You all are using your conspiracy as an excuse to take out your anger with each other for issues that are personal," Sabé said. "And every time you do, you come back with some injury courtesy of Ahsoka Tano."

"I thought you liked Ahsoka."

"I do. I just think you two are incredibly toxic for each other."

She'd given Padmé this same talking to some eight years ago. Back then, Vader was Anakin Skywalker, and he'd been a Jedi married to Padmé. For all that Sabé was sure the pair had loved each other, their relationship was a disaster. They were seldom home together, extremely reckless, protective of each other, and spent too much time not talking through their disagreements—of which there had been many. The one thing Sabé knew they did agree on was public service to the rest of the broader galaxy, though, they wildly different ideas on how to best implement that service. Padmé dismissed Sabé's concerns. The star crossed couple never got to see each other as it was. Why waste time on disagreements? But Sabé had also seen the petty and spiteful ways the two got back at each other. Using their duties to the Republic as an excuse rather than taking the time to sit an understand each other's points of view. Unfortunately, that was time they hadn't had. What little time they did spend together was more focused on physical passion because it was easy to release frustration with sex.

Sabé was watching the exact same situation play out now with Vader and Ahsoka. Even though she'd only seen the two together on two or three occasions, the two clearly cared about each other a lot more than they let on. But unlike Anakin and Padmé, Vader and Ahsoka were more prone to verbally fight out their disagreements. She knew it was the norm because she'd once walked right in on disagreement between the two with Luke and Leia sitting in the room next door playing a board game like they always listened to fights between their parents. Then the two would go their separate ways after not coming to an agreement and repeat until someone, usually Ahsoka, went halfway, and they grudgingly settled on a solution. In rare instances, disagreements ended in physical fights on opposite ends of the battlefield to take out their personal frustration. Then they'd have another verbal fighting match, and they'd either come to an understanding or a temporary truce.

Sabé wasn't sure which relationship was worse. At the very least, though, Ahsoka and Vader weren't afraid to verbally hash through their disagreements and could come to some sort of understanding in the end. Sabé couldn't say that for Anakin and Padmé. Typically, they had resorted to silence, which maybe was why their relationship had ended so explosively.

Saying that Vader, regardless of what name he went by, was the common denominator in both relationships would be a gross oversimplification. Women like Padmé and Ahsoka, brilliant as they were, lived for the kind of excitement and adventure that came with such tumultuous relationships. They sought out turbulent and ill-tempered men like Vader because anything else wasn't enough of a challenge. At the very least, Ahsoka could match Vader's power when things got explosive.

Vader, predictably, shrugged to her observation, "We're fine. She'll yell at me, I'll yell at her, she'll explain herself, I'll explain myself, and then we'll go back to being peaceful acquaintances again."

To think that Vader and Ahsoka could ever be peaceful acquaintances would be ludicrous if not for the fact that Sabé had actually witnessed it. Frequently enough, when the pair managed to be in the same place at the same time, she walked in or comm'd in on the two pleasantly going back and forth over battle strategies. Every now and then, Ahsoka would sit with Vader and watch replays of races he'd missed during his never-ending work in the Empire. And on even rarer occasions, Vader would sit with Ahsoka to watch her favorite anime, all the while complaining that the ones that revolved around war and fighting were unrealistic while they used the Force to throw snacks back and forth at each other.

"What's your plan for her when all this is over?"

"What do you mean?" Vader asked.

"What's your plan for her? When she's given you the Empire, and you're emperor, and you have no need for her rebellion, and you're the one making all the rules, what do you plan to do with her?" Sabé asked bluntly.

Truthfully, while this was the best way to keep the children Padmé left behind safe, Sabé wasn't all that much looking forward to a rule with Vader at the helm. He was a brilliant strategist when it came to physical battles, and he did seem to have the interest of peace, freedom, and justice at heart. Sabé would give him that. But the fact that he was responsible for the current, violent, military regime and had thought it was a good idea in the first place was only one piece of proof that he didn't have the competence to execute a plan to accomplish the goal of a peaceful galaxy. He had a bad temper, little patience, and cared more about revenge than real justice, which required one to look at a circumstance in totality and not the tunnel-vision she knew Vader was prone to. Not because he didn't have the capability to. His strategic battle genius was proof that he was very capable. He just didn't have the patience nor the desire to deal with the nuance and complexities that came with people and social interactions, something necessary to run a government, no matter what form. Otherwise, it would always devolve into tyranny.

That wasn't to say that people like Vader weren't needed. There would always be dirty work to do in the galaxy, and there had to be people willing to do it. But those kinds of people didn't make great the kind of ruler that the galaxy would need after Palpatine's demise. There was a reason Sabé had been Padmé's handmaiden and never been interested in a political career of her own.

As farseeing as Sabé knew Ahsoka to be when it came to Vader, she was sure the togruta woman had the same concerns and was working on a plan. Sabé hadn't discussed it with her, but the best scenario was probably to groom one of the twins to take over the bulk of governing. She wasn't sure which one. Luke, more than likely. While Leia was the one more likely to be an orator of the twins, she had too much of her father's fiery temper and "any means necessary" personality. Vader would certainly be amiable to either child taking over for him, though.

Until the children were old enough, though, someone needed to hold Vader's proverbial leash. Something Sabé doubted a Senate would be able to do even if they were given the power to in the constitution. Vader had brought to power a regime that illegally manipulated a constitution to consolidate power, and now he was seeking to take that stolen power back himself. He didn't care about constitutions and legalities. The only one Sabé knew living that could control him and that Vader might even willingly hand the leash over to was Ahsoka. That meant Sabé had to make sure he intended to keep her close. Not just as whatever the two of them were going to be personally but also politically and in the power structure of whatever government replaced Palpatine's Empire. That meant getting Vader to think about those things now.

"So?" Sabé asked when Vader didn't answer.

"I've got at least five years to figure it out," Vader decided. "I'll worry about what her role will be in the Empire when the time comes."

Sabé wasn't even sure Vader knew what _his_ role was going to be in the Empire. But Sabé let the topic go and began briefing him on the latest information she and the rest of the maidens (as Ahsoka dubbed them) managed to gather about the Moffs Vader wanted her to watch. The goal was to determine which Moffs harbored dissent for Palpatine's rule and would side with Vader in a coup. Sabe wasn't overly impressed with most of them, but that too was an issue to deal with after they deposed Sidious.

Sabé knew the exact moment Ahsoka, Luke, and Leia dropped out of hyperspace because Vader promptly dismissed her halfway through the report and told her they'd resume discussion in the morning. As promised, he called her back to his office in the morning. But not to continue her briefing.

"Empress," he said simply once she'd sat across from him.

Yet another reason Vader would be ill-suited to rule the galaxy one day. Always straight to the meat of the matter, and he expected everyone to already be on the same page.

"Pardon?" Sabé asked.

"You asked me what Ahsoka's role would be at the end of all this. I'm going to make her an empress. The Empress."

Sabé didn't know why Padmé had to die for her to begin to comprehend what it was about Vader that had attracted her former mistress to him. All she knew was in this exact moment, this was the kind of idea Padmé would have suddenly dropped on her. Like she'd dropped on Sabé that they were returning to Naboo to fight the Trade Federation themselves and that she would enlist the help of the gungans to do it. Or how she'd dropped on her that she'd married a Jedi. Or how the woman dropped on her that she was leaving Coruscant at the end of the Clone Wars to find her errant husband and that she probably would be going into hiding.

Padmé and Anakin had been a match made in heaven. Or hell. Depended on how one looked at it.

"So… you're going to marry her?" Sabé asked. She doubted it, but best to get that out the way.

"No," Vader dismissed as he began to pace the room. "I'm just going to make her an empress. She and her rebellion will help me defeat Palpatine and make me the emperor, and then I'll abdicate the throne and give it to her."

Sabé couldn't say she was particularly for or opposed to Vader's idea. She'd hoped Vader would realize that the only way to be the best ruler he possibly could was by keeping Ahsoka in close proximity to his rule. But this was more than keeping Ahsoka in close proximity, and she wondered what he meant to accomplish by giving Ahsoka that kind of power.

"What made you decide that?"

"Last night, she asked me about my intentions for the Empire when the emperor is defeated. The things I plan to change to create a government that actually ensures the peace, security, and freedom of the galaxy. Like you, she's concerned I don't have the competence in rulership and diplomacy to do that without inadvertently stifling the freedom of the people and destroying them in my zeal to do what I think is right."

Sabé kept her lips firmly pressed together, but she was sure Vader sensed her surprise given his powers. She was proven right when he paused his pacing and turned his pointed expression to her.

"What? You thought I didn't know that you and Ahsoka have your reservations about a government under my rule?" He didn't allow her to reply. "Ahsoka wouldn't outright say it last night, but it's clear to me that she's so angry about me hiding the existence of the Death Star from her because she thinks I have plans to use it. That it's some indication that she might be helping bring down one tyrant to replace with another."

Vader was an intelligent and thoughtful man. Much more than people gave him credit for. Much more than Sabé gave him credit for now and certainly much more than she'd given him credit for as a younger man. She knew there was a certain amount of performance he was required to display to fool the emperor, but she wondered how much he also unconsciously performed to fool his allies. A performance so convincing that it had Ahsoka, the person who knew him most, questioning him. Now, Sabé wondered how much he'd really understood or thought he'd understood about what he was getting himself into when he'd committed himself to Palpatine. Was it really agreement with the man's actions and methods or a willingness to act the part to get what he wanted, and then things went wrong? Neither Ahsoka nor Vader ever gave her details on exactly why or how Vader came to serve Palpatine. Sabé didn't care enough yet to find smart ways to trick it out of one of them.

"Can you blame her?" Sabé finally asked. "Why did you hide it from her anyway?"

"Because I knew she wasn't going to agree with how I was dealing with the problem or trust me not to minimize the magnitude of the problem and go looking into the project anyway. Then she would have tried to destroy it herself and only garnered Palpatine's attention, something she and her rebellion aren't quite ready to deal with yet."

Sabé sighed. "This is what I mean when I say you and Ahsoka need to communicate with each other. You could have just explained that to her. Ahsoka's not beyond being reasoned with."

Vader scoffed. "You didn't train her. Twice."

Sabé didn't know whether to be amused or baffled. That statement could indicate a startling lack of self-awareness or a startling large amount of self-awareness.

Vader waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "We're past it now, though."

Sabé mentally rolled her eyes, too professional to do so physically. She also held enough value for her life and sanity not to do anything that might incite Vader's rage right now. She wasn't afraid to ask him the difficult, probing questions or speak her honest opinions when called for. But she knew there was a line she couldn't toe, let alone cross.

"Regardless, I am not so incompetent to believe that a planet-killing monstrosity is an effective way to rule. Not only would I like a galaxy to rule, but it is also the quickest way to start a war to overthrow me that I won't have any control over. That said, I do understand both your concerns. And if I'm honest, the daily tasks of rulership hold little interest to me," Vader admitted with a shrug. "But Ahsoka? She's perfect. She's already begun to think through what a future Empire under a more just rule would look like, about how to appeal to the Republic loyalists. And she's already running the rebellion."

Sabé was going to need alcohol after this.

"That may be true, but running an organization during wartime is very different than running a government during peacetime. More importantly, guiding the government out of wartime and into peacetime ruling."

"Ahsoka's more than capable of it."

Though Sabé wasn't sure Vader had thought through the implications of making Ahsoka an Empress, she couldn't say it was a bad idea. Ahsoka's kindness and willingness to see beyond what people had done to her to the root of their hurt for the sake of others would appeal to Republic loyalists and their desire for peace. On the other hand, her willingness to dirty her hands and physically fight those who were unwilling to see reason would appeal to Imperials and their desire for law and order. Sabé also couldn't say she was opposed to the idea of Ahsoka as an Empress. Padmé always thought the girl would be a great politician and leader if she could get her away from the Jedi. Now the young woman was away from the Jedi and had proven her dead mistress right in that regard. And while Ahsoka was very young, she had been groomed for forms of leadership and diplomacy since she was a child in the old Jedi Temple.

"You're right. She is," Sabé decided to agree. "Have you told her of your intention?"

"So she can outmaneuver me and foil my plan? Of course not."

"My Lord," Sabé said exasperated.

"I know. Ahsoka's not beyond reason, and I need to communicate with her." So he did listen to was she had to say. "But not about this. Not yet. When I tell her, I need her to be able to see it. I need everything to point to her as Empress being the only solution toward a peaceful galaxy. An Empire that will actually last a thousand years and actually bring into fruition the promises Palpatine failed to deliver on."

One look into his yellow eyes, searching for something in a place that transcended the realm of the physical, told Sabé that arguing with him would be futile. She could tell Ahsoka herself, but she knew Vader wasn't above lying and saying that Sabé had misunderstood his words. For all that Ahsoka had no illusions about who and what Vader was, he was also her biggest weakness.

"Vader."

Sabé mentally rolled her eyes again. Speak of the devil…

Vader's attention immediately went to Ahsoka, the yellow in his eyes receding, but Ahsoka's attention turned to Sabé.

"Morning Sabé. Am I interrupting something important?"

Sabé smiled and stood to her feet. "No. We were just finishing up."

Ahsoka nodded and then made her way to Vader's side of the desk. She leaned against it with her arms crossed and shot Vader a grin. "Luke and Leia don't believe that you and I know anything about fighting video games. They're swearing up and down they could take us both on and win. You up to it?"

Vader frowned in disapproval though Sabé was sure it was feigned. "I don't know why you indulge them in their childish pursuits and follies."

"Childish pursuits and follies are important to the mental and emotional development of children. Besides, video games help with hand-eye coordination and reflexes," Ahsoka argued.

"You're going to regret giving them that argument one day."

"Just like you did with me?"

Vader's mouth twitched like he wanted to smile. Then he stood, and Ahsoka straightened as they both started toward the door, shoulder to shoulder.

Goodness, Sabe thought to herself as she looked at the two. Ahsoka was so young. They both were. But at least Vader's perpetual scowl and glares aged him some, and his suit hid his appearance in public. But even with the stress of running a rebellion, the worst thing Ahsoka suffered were chronic headaches that Diya was always fussing at the woman for not taking medication for. Even in five years, when they went through with their coup, she wasn't going to age much. If at all. There were going to be a lot of old, influential blood pissed off about having to take orders from someone they considered a little girl. Sabé was going to have to coordinate with Rex to start building an airtight security and intel network to ward off assassination attempts. Because no doubt there were going to be some people stupid enough to try even though they would only incite Vader's vengeful fury.

"You're dismissed until your next reporting date," said Vader without looking back at Sabé. He said to Ahsoka as they continued leaving, "Don't think I've forgotten about the fact that you didn't tell me you're on speaking terms with Obi-wan Kenobi and knew where to find him."

"We agreed I can protect the Jedi."

Even without being able to see her, Sabé could hear the smile in the younger woman's voice.

"For now. We're still going to discuss this in great detail."

"And we're not done talking about the Death Star. I was just too exhausted to finish talking about it last night."

Their voices faded the further they got down the hall until Sabé couldn't hear them.

"_You have to get to know him, Sabé. I know he seems very… abrasive. But there's more to him beyond your surface assessment. You just have to get to know him," _Padmé said tenderly after Sabé had expressed objective disapproval of her mistress' marriage to Anakin Skywalker.

Perhaps Vader would make a decent emperor yet.

* * *

**AN: **1) An interlude in the middle of the part. But as always, I don't really follow a pattern. Also, the original place when Vader had this revelatory conversation with Ahsoka was in his point of view, and you can read it in chapter 18 of "Force Distortion." In "Force Distortion," it was a necessary transition in a series of flashback chapters about their relationship. But rehashing that chapter here in his point of view literally offered nothing to this story that we didn't already know except that he comes up with the idea to make Ahsoka empress. Everything else revealed about their relationship in that chapter we already know from the rest of this story. So I went with an interlude from Sabé.

2) Also, I want to note that even though I see the issues with Anakin's and Padmé's relationship, I don't hate them as a couple or think they were incompatible. I think they were compatible, but the lack of communication and the fact that they never really had a chance to get to know each other ultimately made it toxic when they were together. I really think they could have fixed their relationship after the war. I think if they could have dated longer and didn't have to rush into marriage their relationship would have been more stable. And though I will ship Anisoka until I die, I don't think Anakin and Ahsoka would be more suited to each other romantically than Anakin and Padmé were. I just think the former just had a healthier relationship (as friends) because they could actually spend time together and get to truly know each other in a way Anakin didn't get a chance to with Padmé.

Okay. Enough rambling. I hoped you enjoyed. Review please!


	45. Jakku

**Chapter Forty-Five: Jakku**

Good intentions and a good heart did not necessarily make a good leader. Vader only had to look as far as the Senate leaders who hadn't been corrupt during the Clone Wars before the fall of the Republic to know that. So keen on following the rules, on maintaining the illusion of democracy, they hadn't been willing to take the drastic measures necessary to end the war and save their precious Republic and the galaxy until it was too late. Until Sidious had cemented his hold on the galaxy and forced them to have to work in the shadows. Even now, the Republic loyalists who remained in the Senate were under the delusion that they could still solve their dispute with Palpatine through peaceful, non-violent measures.

So just because he knew Ahsoka was more concerned with and had given more thought to the state of the galaxy and the future galactic government than he had didn't mean she would be perfect for the role of its next ruler. Just like when she'd first approached him with the idea to depose Sidious and he'd made sure she was back in optimum shape for the dangers she would encounter, Vader had to ensure she had the skill to rule, especially during the volatile initial years of their new galactic order.

The problem was that he knew how to train fighters and create deadly warriors, but he didn't know how to groom a future empress. Perhaps, though, he didn't have to. She seemed to be doing an admirable job of running the rebellion despite all her baseless insecurities. Maybe all he had to do was continue urging her in the right direction, and she'd flourish like she always did in most situations.

His meditations gave him little in the way of dissuading or encouraging his idea. What used to be vague impressions that one day he'd claim the Imperial throne from Sidious were now more concrete. He saw himself in dark robes in the Senate without the suit, saw himself leaving Imperial Center to handle some military matter, saw Luke and Leia sneaking into the barracks, but Ahsoka was nowhere to be seen. Why wasn't she there? Why couldn't he see her?

He knew the Force was capable of showing him something about her. He'd received a vision of her before. Well. Not quite a vision. An image after her exoneration, after he'd convinced her to stay a Jedi, and after she'd finally fallen asleep from pure exhaustion on the couch and he'd put her to bed. He had been contemplating exactly what he was going to say to the Council the next day in a state between sleeping and waking and saw an image of her as an adult, looking exactly as she looked presently. Exuding power, standing in a room with maybe a dozen Jedi. Yoda had been there. And so had Obi-wan. The rest he wasn't familiar with. What he did know was that she had that grim, determined look on her face with her hip cocked and arms crossed, and everyone in the room was apprehensive about something. Except her. She'd been in total control of the room. As though their fate lay in her hands.

If there was one moment in his former life that he hadn't been a coward, it was the next morning and over the next few days (and weeks) when he argued for her knighting, threatened the entire Council, and then threatened Tarkin and his entire prosecuting team because they'd still had questions that unfairly implicated Ahsoka. He'd been ready to threaten the Senate and land himself with a charge of sedition and treason if they hadn't backed off. It was a wonder he hadn't been thrown out the Order for his blatant insolence then.

Getting nothing more from his searching, Vader pulled himself out of his meditation and prepared to get ready to leave his quarters and head to the bridge. He'd just gotten his mask and helmet secure when his comm beeped. He sighed, went over to the larger projector, and hooked his comm to it.

"We've got a problem," Sabé said no sooner than her image appeared on the projector.

"I'm listening."

"Mind if I three-way another agent?"

Vader nodded his permission, and then Diya's hologram appeared. He wasn't surprised, given both worked in intelligence. When Diya only nodded in his direction, Vader knew whatever Sabé was reporting was grave. Diya never missed the opportunity to express her hatred for him.

"Gallius Rax," Sabé said, using the low, passive tone that she'd practiced when she was playing decoy for Padmé when she was queen. It told Vader everything he needed to know about the low esteem she held this particular individual in.

"Who's he?" Vader asked.

"That's what the hell we wanna know," Diya said with a snort.

Sabé continued, "I was looking through the roster of the Naval Intelligence and found him. He appeared out of nowhere and was made a commander at the beginning of the Empire. I thought it was odd for a person with no apparent military history to be promoted to such a high rank."

"It wouldn't be totally out of the norm," Vader stated.

"Maybe. But the last time I thought it was odd for someone with no apparent military history to appear out of nowhere in the Imperial Order, I found you," Sabé stated matter-of-factly.

Though Vader knew Sabé well enough to know she meant no disrespect, he still glared at Diya when she snickered.

"The reports he sends to the Imperial Security Bureau bypass even the highest security clearances. In short, he's up to something. Something the emperor didn't tell you about judging by the fact that you didn't know who the man was. And frankly, I don't think he wanted you to know. I was in the process of finding out, but…" Sabé looked toward Diya.

"The Liberty Resistance has been tracking a pervasive slave trade. They've been kidnapping children by the hundreds, and their net is broad and encompasses dozens of systems and hundreds of planets. I didn't think it was the Empire at first. It was too clandestine to be the Empire. Why be clandestine about something that's a totally legal and legitimate operation? But then I realized it wasn't because it was illegal, but because something's happening there that the Empire doesn't want anyone to know. So I tracked them."

"Tracked them?"

"We won't talk about how I tracked them," Diya said bluntly. Vader imagined it involved a lot of dead informants, both Imperial and otherwise, to cover her tracks. He didn't care, but he supposed she couldn't turn off the habit from dealing with Ahsoka, who did care. "But I found something. On Jakku. It looks like some kind of underground bunker, but there's way too much imperial activity around there for it to be nothing. I couldn't get close, though. Not without Ahsoka or you having to come bail me out," she added dryly. "But the few days I was there, I did get a picture of one Gallius Rax. I thought he looked imperial and pretty important if this was some clandestine secret operation, so I asked Sabé if she knew he was."

"And when she showed me the picture, she confirmed all of my suspicions," Sabé said. "Gallius Rax is not all he seems to be, and he's up to something on Jakku."

"Something that I think we need to know about if your plan to eliminate Palpatine and his allies for good is going to succeed," Diya added.

"What makes you so certain?" Vader asked.

Diya shrugged. "A feeling."

A feeling from a Force user was the equivalent of a confirmation as far as Vader was concerned.

"I thought it would be too dangerous to send a maiden in to investigate given Diya's intel. But given the possibly nefarious nature, I thought it prudent to inform you anyway."

Vader didn't answer right away. For all he knew, this was some benign project that he'd simply overlooked. Goodness knew there were hundreds of different Imperial projects going on at any given time, and Vader didn't have the time to pick through and oversee all of them. That said, Palpatine didn't trust him with all his secrets. Vader was just one valuable piece in Palpatine's cog, replaceable if he became more trouble than he was worth. He already had a possible replacement for Vader. Inquisitor Jerec, a former Jedi that was continually trying to undermine him to gain Palpatine's favor and the status of Sith apprentice. Vader paid the fallen Jedi little attention. His place at Palpatine's side was secure for now, although Jerec also answered directly to the emperor, which only served to infuriate and make the inquisitor hate him more. If he weren't so devoted to Palpatine and hated Vader a little less, Vader might have been able to use Jerec. As it was, he planned on killing the man and all Palpatine's backup apprentices at the last possible moment before facing Palpatine.

But a backup apprentice unquestionably wasn't Palpatine's only contingency plan. Perhaps Jakku had something to do with another. Not only that, but Diya and Sabé, both working on different assignments and missions, had found two separate leads that connected at the same time. If that wasn't a sign from the Force to investigate, Vader didn't know what was.

"Send me all the information you have," Vader ordered. "I'll investigate the matter for myself."

"Yourself?" Diya asked. "You're not exactly inconspicuous enough for this kind of mission."

"An apt observation, Diya," Vader drawled at the girl. "I'm not infiltrating whatever this bunker is. I'm going to walk right up and demand entry."

* * *

Vader frankly thought he'd get a little more pushback from the guards when he walked up to the metal bunker in the middle of Jakku's desert. But they saluted him like they had expected he would show up one day and let him inside the bunker. Now he was sure it was a secret plan of the Emperor's doing. It wouldn't be the first time the Emperor hadn't told him about a project but fully prepared for him to stumble upon it.

From the outside, it looked like a typical small outpost or control center, but as Diya had pointed out, the Imperial activity around a wide radius of the bunker gave it away. The lift that Vader spotted before he even crossed the threshold of the entrance confirmed their theories. The lift took him well below the surface of the planet and finally opened to a large dark hall. Sensing no urging one way or another in the Force, Vader pressed forward until the corridor extended out into an expansive crossway that led to a multitude of directions. This time, the Force did urge him in a direction. Straight down the steps and to the large durasteel doors on the opposite side. He used the Force to force the door mechanics open and continued forward down the long hall until he found himself on the other side of a ray shield. While ray shield mechanics were more complicated than door mechanics, Vader had been honing the Force skill needed to interfere with all mechanics and machinery as part of the continual refinement of his talents for years. After a few minutes, the ray shield dissolved, and Vader stepped into the high tech data room.

"What is this place?" he asked himself as he approached the main computer.

It was heavily encrypted, but Vader always was better at working with machines and technology than he was with people. After a few minutes, he overrode the encryption to get into the system. There were dozens of folders on the screen, which Vader opened in no particular order. Some had nothing in them. Others had information that appeared relatively benign without further context. He opened the eleventh one, and more data filled the screen.

Operation Contingency.

He clicked on a holovideo, and the image of Palpatine came up along with one Gallius Rax.

"_I trust that you have everything in order and that you know what to do."_

"_Yes, my lord," _the young man said to Palpatine._ "Contingency is ready to launch at any time."_

That confirmed that this was yet another project of Palpatine's that he was keeping hidden from Vader. His master frequently played games like this. Left clues that could lead to information but in places that Vader was likely to overlook. In the off chance that Vader did manage to stumble upon it, Palpatine would congratulate Vader on a job well done and let Vader in on the operation to his own gain. It was what the man did when Vader discovered the inquisitors.

Vader continued to scroll through the folder to see what his master was up to now, and the more he read, the more he struggled to restrain his power. He gathered the dark side around him in fury, needing something to lash out at, wanting to destroy the computer and then entire data room. But he needed this data. He needed a copy of it. Proof to show to Ahsoka because their plot to take down Palpatine had just gotten a lot more complicated.

Vader started to type in the commands to make the computer begin copying the information but paused halfway through, sensing a presence in the room.

He turned around with his lightsaber drawn, using the blade to illuminate the shadows that not even the night vision in his mask could penetrate.

"Who's there?"

Out stepped two children. Both humans, if Vader had to guess, somewhere between twelve and fifteen standard years.

"We've never seen you here before," the female child said. "Master Rax didn't inform us that anyone was coming."

"What are you doing here?" Vader asked.

"This is our home. We guard it," the girl said.

"Guard," Vader stated, and then the Force gave a warning.

Vader raised his hand up and caught the child that leaped at him from above with the Force. He threw them back and then raised his lightsaber to block the long shock blade that the male child on the ground aimed at him. He forced the blade from the boy's hand and threw him back into the hall while the blonde-haired girl who spoke before lit a red lightsaber.

Perfect. One of Palpatine's adepts.

She jumped at him with her blade, and Vader effortlessly blocked the attack. She elegantly used her much smaller size to slide out the way of his attack and get behind him. Having neither the time nor the desire to toy with her, he whirled around, clearly quicker than she had been expecting, parried the attack, and disarmed the girl. Her saber flew into some corner of the room, and she attempted to launch herself over him. Vader snatched her out the air with a Force choke.

Instantly, she began clawing at her throat for breath, but Vader didn't plan to wait for the time it took her to be strangled and pointed his blade at her.

"Pathetic," he grumbled and got ready to strike her down.

Her fear fed the dark side, and stray thoughts left her mind as she lost control of the Force. Thoughts of her sureness that her friend, who was sneaking up behind him with his shock staff, would save her. How after her friend struck them, she planned to knock him out with a drug and then would wait for their Master, Gallius Rax, to get here in a few days or so to decide what to do with him.

She may have been stupid enough to think he was distracted and at a disadvantage, but Vader suddenly saw opportunity. He needed to know more about this base, about this plan, and if there were other people and planets involved. It was amazing the things people would reveal when they thought they had someone at their mercy.

The shock from the staff was probably going to damage his respirator, and the drugs were going to dampen his awareness and reflexes, but he needed to meet Gallius Rax. And one thing Vader knew about all Palpatine's pawns was that they were always trying to find a way to one-up Vader. This was a one-time opportunity to get information he would sorely need to take down Palpatine for good.

So he pretended not to notice the boy behind him with his shock staff, letting the child stab him in the back with it. He let go of his grip around the girl's throat and fell to one knee. The third child was waiting in the corner, and because she was too slow, Vader pretended to be more affected by the shock than he actually was. He turned too late to where the third child was _just_ managing to stick a thick needle into his upper arm.

Almost instantly, his arm went limp, and his lightsaber clattered to the floor.

"Who's the pathetic one now?" the girl asked, sounding pleased with herself.

If Vader had the energy with the drug coursing through his system, he would have scoffed at her arrogance. Stupid child, was his last thought as he let himself blackout.

When he came to, he was in a dark room with some kind of barely-there shielding in the walls. The first thing he noticed, after the fact that the children had somehow managed to string him up by cuffs and chains, was his dampening Force connection, though he got the sense that he could use the Force with some trouble if and when he wanted to escape.

"Oh, good. You're awake. I wasn't sure if we gave you too much of the drug. Your breathing was sounding strange there for a while," the Force-trained girl he'd dueled before said.

Vader didn't answer her. But he was sure the respirator sounded strange because the shock staff had damaged it. It was more uncomfortable to breathe with the mask on right now than it would be without it for too long a time.

"Master Rax is on his way. He seemed very concerned when we told him we captured you. I don't know why. You can't be that dangerous if we could beat you," the girl sneered.

Though Vader could not wait to disabuse her of the notion that he had ever been defeated, he decided not to answer. This was a waiting game now.

* * *

**AN: **1) Sorry about the lateness. But it was for a good reason. I hit a block writing a part of this story about a week ago. I knew what needed to happen, but I wasn't sure how to write it. But I finally got past the block... on the day I was supposed to be prepping this chapter to update. Hence, the late chapter.

2) It's not really a spoiler to say that Gallius Rax, canonically, was vital to the formation of the First Order after OT. It's all over the internet and wookieepedia. I actually enjoyed some of the background that other media filled in. My problem with it was that none of this info was in the movies which would have made ST a lot more cohesive and make a lot more sense that the mess of "cool" action scenes they cobbled together to call a movie. But I digress... Anywho, back when I wrote this two and a half months ago, I had been going back and forth on how much if any of the lore that leads to ST I was going to use in this and... well, I kinda liked the idea of Palpatine having these contingency plans, I just didn't like the way it was executed. Thus, I've picked bits and pieces of it to incorporate.

Anywho, hope you enoyed. Review please! I appreciate it! A lot has been going so I haven't been able to keep up with replies, but I'm reading them.


	46. Maybe

**Chapter Forty-Six: ****Maybe**

Ahsoka didn't know how much restraint she had left in her to keep herself from rolling her eyes. She almost wished for the days from not very long ago when the Rebellion didn't have a centralized base or an official centralized command, and it was all on her to make critical decisions that she informed the rest of High Command of after she'd put her plan into action. Put twelve people in a room, though, and they all had twelve different ideas for how to do something. Sometimes she could find the tolerance to bear the squabbling and disagreements between High Command. Other times she wanted to tell them all to shut up, decide on a course of action, dismiss the meeting, and find something to nurse her headache. She was leaning toward the latter today. What should have been a simple meeting to coordinate smuggling aid to one of their allies devolved into a political debate about how giving that aid might alienate another ally who had bad political relationships with the planet needing aid.

But then they'd imply she was being a dictator. Personally, and perhaps this was Vader rubbing off on her, they could use a little dictatorship in their lives. No wonder the Republic had become corrupt, and Palpatine managed to take over. She decided to allow the rest of High Command to duke out the same arguments one more time before she intervened.

Ahsoka didn't often reminisce about her life pre-Empire, but the debate reminded her of during the Clone Wars when frequently she found herself tuning out the back and forth between the Council and the Senate. Anakin would inevitably notice and then send snarky remarks across their bond, and she'd have to resist the urge to snicker and giggle. Then, they'd both even get tired of that. Finally, Anakin would state an opinion that no one else in the room was brave enough to vocalize to either force them to action, reconvene at a later time, or just dismiss them from the room until the discussion ended.

Feeling fed up and really wanting to take a nap before she had to get on a ship back to Alderaan, she sucked in a breath to intervene only to feel the dimming of something in her mind. Ahsoka took only a few seconds to realize it was from the place she was connected to Vader. A distant presence that she was so used to being there that the dampening of the presence made her feel vulnerable. She frowned and narrowed her eyes. That was… strange.

"Something wrong, General?"

Ahsoka snapped out her thoughts and to save face said, "I just think that doing good and helping people in their time of need shouldn't be a political debate. We won't punish innocent people for differences in ideology between their leaders. Especially when both planets are part of our alliance."

"That's not what the Macargoans are going to think, unfortunately."

"That's their problem then. And it's something Barriss, and I can smooth over if needed. In the meantime, the situation on Murkhana continues to worsen. While there's no way we can assist with a mass planetary migration any time soon, we have the resources thanks to those in our network to aid their people in the meantime. And we will," Ahsoka decided, somewhat absently as she carefully prodded around the cold spot where she could find Vader. Even with their bond submerged in the dark side to hide from the Emperor, even when he'd suffered some kind of punishment at the hands of the Emperor, she never felt this strange dimness. Not wishing to give anyone a chance to bring up anything else, Ahsoka said, "Mon, if you could contact Ordnance and Supply and tell them to get started opening up that supply chain. That was the last issue on the agenda as far as I know. Meeting adjourned."

Ahsoka left the room before anyone could get the chance to call her back and went to her quarters. Contacting Vader by comm could be a hit or miss, but she tried anyway. He didn't answer, but that wasn't out of the norm. He frequently didn't answer his comm when she contacted him and vice versa. Nothing to be concerned about.

She comm'd Sabé on a hunch anyway.

"_Diya told me it would only be a matter of time before you called,"_ Sabé said immediately.

Ahsoka didn't even need to ask if she'd been in contact with Vader. That was all she needed to know.

"What happened?"

"_Nothing,"_ Sabé stated. _"At least, we don't think."_

"We?"

"_Diya and I."_

"How did Diya get involved with something to do with Vader?" Ahsoka asked.

"_We both move in the world of assassins, spies, and intelligence. I followed a lead from the Imperial side, and she followed one from the Rebellion side, and we met in between. It was important enough to take to Vader, and she agreed,"_ Sabé asked.

"Why would she agree to take it Vader and not fill me in?"

"_You'll have to ask her that question yourself."_

Ahsoka would. It was abundantly clear now that Vader had co-opted her lieutenant for something.

"So, what's the problem?" Ahsoka asked.

"_Lord Vader went to investigate our intel for himself. It was supposed to be a day mission. In and out. It's been longer than that. And he hasn't contacted us."_

"So, something did happen."

"_Not for certain,"_ Sabé said. "_For all we know, he decided to go off the grid without telling us."_

That… might be true. But it was out of the norm for Vader to go off the grid and not tell her. He'd gone off the grid half a dozen times over the years, and each time informed her not to pay attention to any ill-informed rumors of his absence. Usually, the Emperor's scheming was involved.

Ahsoka crossed her arms. It could be nothing. She wasn't getting any special warning that something was wrong in the Force, but that didn't always mean anything. The future was always in motion, and sometimes it took a choice, an action, an event to feel the stirrings of warning if something was wrong. Vader truly could be perfectly fine right now. That didn't mean he would be in the next day or so if he didn't turn up.

"Anything from the Imperial side?" Ahsoka asked.

"Not yet," Sabé said. "But Lord Vader would have to be missing an incredibly longer period of time or in mortal danger for the Emperor to notice. He's not omniscient."

Sabé got that from Vader. Ahsoka was sure. Vader told Ahsoka the same thing about Palpatine once. The man was no omniscient or omnipotent force. Just a highly intelligent and manipulative sociopath who accounted for all possible obstacles in his way and had multiple contingency plans until the Force tipped to near certainty when only a few choices were left, which made him appear to be omniscient or omnipotent. Ahsoka wasn't sure if Vader had been trying to convince her or himself of that, despite the fact that his words rang true.

Old Jedi teachings resurfaced in her mind despite her efforts to distance herself from the faith. They told her to think past her emotions and to let go of her clear attachment. Ahsoka reminded herself she stopped being a Jedi a long time ago and that she'd given up trying to deny her attachment to Vader a little while after.

"Do you know where he went?" Ahsoka asked.

"_Jakku."_

"Do you have the exact coordinates?"

"_I do."_

"Send them to me. I'm going to find Vader."

"_Way ahead of you,"_ Sabé said as Ahsoka's datapad pinged with the information.

With her utility belt already on her, lightsabers included, Ahsoka headed to the hanger. She'd sent Rex on a mission earlier with the promise that her only plans were to meet with High Command, take a nap, and go back to Alderaan. That talked him out of assigning a soldier to take with her in case she went on a mission. Hopefully, he'd forgive her once he found out why she'd left.

She was halfway to the hanger when she ran into Obi-wan.

"What fortune? I was hoping you hadn't taken the time to seclude yourself from the world yet."

Ahsoka resisted the urged to groan. Obi-wan had the most impeccable timing.

"What has High Command complained about me to you for now?" Ahsoka asked to speed up the conversation as she continued to walk.

Somehow, High Command had gotten it into their heads that if they wanted her to legitimately hear out a grievance, they should tell Obi-wan. Both she and Obi-wan found it amusing that they thought there was anything Obi-wan could say to persuade her once she'd made up her mind to do something.

"_Getting you and Anakin to listen to my sound reasoning is my life's greatest failure," _he'd said with a roll of his eyes. They'd both ignored the solemn truth to those words and took it in the good-natured manner he'd meant it.

"That bad?" Obi-wan asked of her meeting today.

On any other day, Ahsoka might have indulged in his conversation. Maybe even complain to him and allow him to give him some sage Jedi wisdom that she would either take or ignore, but she needed to get to Jakku.

"Not really. Just tiring," Ahsoka said with a curt shrug. "I'll discuss it with you later if I remember it."

"Where are you rushing off to?" Obi-wan asked.

"Nowhere. Just tired. Ready to get home."

"I thought you were leaving for Alderaan tomorrow?"

Curse Obi-wan and his observational skills.

"Change of plans."

"Oh? You should tell Bail. He's headed back to Alderaan tonight to maintain the illusion that he never left the planet. It would free up a transport," Obi-wan added.

Feeling like she was a padawan again and trying to dodge both Anakin and Obi-wan to get out the temple, Ahsoka groaned. Obi-wan was neither as considerate of her secrets nor as easy to deflect as most people Ahsoka dealt with. She'd done it years ago to avoid telling him about the twins, but he hadn't really been himself back then.

"I'm not going to Alderaan. Not yet."

"Really?" Obi-wan asked as though he hadn't already figured that out.

"Something came up. Going out for a quick mission. Shouldn't take more than a couple of days. I'll be done with it before anyone notices I'm missing." At least, Ahsoka hoped that was the case if Vader hadn't gotten himself into actual trouble.

"And did you inform Rex of your intentions?"

"It's… pretty classified."

Obi-wan raised his eyebrow at her, his hands clasped behind his back. His way of telling her they could do this however long she wanted.

Ahsoka sighed. "My informant lost contact with the leader of one of his task forces a couple of days ago. It hasn't been very long, and his commander's not concerned about it yet, but I just want to make sure."

"Your informant sounds like he's involved in some aspect of espionage. Are you sure he's just not off the grid right now?"

"Maybe. But it's not like him to do that and not tell me," Ahsoka explained. That and the dimmed presence of his Force signature. But telling Obi-wan that would be giving too much away. "I just…" She looked away from Obi-wan as she trailed off. Then she continued, "I just wanna be sure."

Obi-wan gave her a long, considering look before he finally said, "I'll accompany you then."

Ahsoka startled and stuttered a few times before saying, "Wait. What?"

"I'll go with you. Certainly, if your informant has gotten himself into a dangerous situation, it would be better not to go it alone."

"Actually, it would."

"And Rex and Cal would never forgive me if they knew I let you go on this kind of mission alone and something happened to you," Obi-wan said as he walked ahead of her to the hanger.

"I… hold on. Obi-wan. Wait. I mean… It's really not necessary."

"I disagree. Now the longer we squabble, the more time we waste that could be used getting to your _informant_," Obi-wan stated.

Ahsoka resisted the urged to try to partially cover up the chevrons on her lekku that she just knew were darkly flushed right now. She hadn't thought her… Fondness. She'd call it fondness. She hadn't thought her fondness for Vader was that obvious. And maybe it wasn't. Maybe Obi-wan just knew her that well.

If this were Vader being this insistent, she'd brush him off and go back and forth with him until he got tired of fighting her and let Ahsoka have her way. But this was Obi-wan. The hierarchy of the Order was gone, and she now outranked him, but she couldn't just _order_ Obi-wan to not come with her. She could, but it was Obi-wan for goodness sake. For all that Anakin had been responsible for her training, Obi-wan had been just as involved. In fact, her fellow padawans had a running joke at one point that she had two masters, and because of who they were, the Council turned a blind eye. If Anakin had been the blurry mix of older brother and best friend showing her the ropes, then Obi-wan had definitely been the stern but caring father figure. And while she was sure she could get him to back off this idea, she didn't have the time to do it in the pleading manner of her youth.

"I guess," she finally acquiesced, with little choice but to do otherwise.

Not going to Jakku was out of the question, but it would be wonderfully convenient if Vader would comm her right now and allay her concerns so that she didn't have to. Going to Jakku with Obi-wan along for the ride now meant that she had to confess to yet another of the two—three?—secrets that she'd kept from him. She'd kept putting it off, finding a reason not to tell him the truth. Now she had about a rotation to figure out how to do it. Preferably before they found Vader. Way before.

For all that Ahsoka stopped caring a long time ago what the Jedi thought, this was Obi-wan. She knew what she would choose if it came down to Vader or Obi-wan. She'd done it before. But the choice never sat well with her.

Ahsoka waited until they were halfway into their hyperspace journey before she decided to broach the subject.

When she found Obi-wan in a light meditative state in one of the bunks, he opened his eyes and asked knowingly, "Yes?"

Ahsoka looked around the bunk before deciding to stand in the doorway as she said, "There's something I need to tell you before we get to Jakku."

"About your informant, I'm guessing."

"Yeah…" Ahsoka said, avoiding his gaze. "I need to tell you who he is and the real nature of his status. Better for you to get over your shock and tell me I'm insane now rather than you seeing him and telling me then."

"Go ahead, then."

Ahsoka took a deep breath and released her trepidation. At his best, Vader was much more explosive and dangerous than Obi-wan would be at his worse, and she had no problem facing his ire.

"I wasn't all the way truthful about Vader a few months ago. I mean… I didn't lie. I did turn him down on the offer to be his apprentice, and I will continue to," Ahsoka added.

"What's this got to do with your informant?"

Ahsoka sighed. Obi-wan was _not_ usually this slow on the uptake. Breha figured out her connection to Vader and the nature of their partnership with a lot less information than Obi-wan had now. But Breha also didn't have a lifetime of teachings that said the deal she'd struck with Vader shouldn't even be possible.

"Obi-wan. Vader is my informant."

Not many things disturbed Obi-wan's practiced Jedi calm to any noticeable degree. Ahsoka only recalled two events in the past that had. The first was when Satine had, allegedly, been murdered. The second was when Anakin became Darth Vader. Now, she could add a third.

"Obi-wan," Ahsoka called when he didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry. Something must be wrong with my hearing. I could have sworn you said that Darth Vader was your informant."

That tone was his way of warning her that if this was a joke, now was the time to take it back. He'd used it on Anakin a lot.

"I did. He is."

Obi-wan blinked, opened and closed his mouth, before saying, "Ahsoka. You mean to tell me you're working with Darth Vader?"

"Yes."

"Next thing I know, you're going to tell me he's not a Sith Lord."

"Oh, he's definitely a Sith," Ahsoka said with a scoff. "But he appreciates that we have a common enemy. He's just as displeased with Palpatine as everyone else is."

"Oh, yes. Darth Vader's crusades across the galaxy on behalf of our illustrious emperor is proof of that."

That was fair.

"He doesn't have a choice. If Sidious suspects anything, it could ruin everything."

"What's everything, Ahsoka? What exactly is Darth Vader's goal in all this? I can't imagine it's to reinstate the Republic and democracy."

"No. It's not. And I'm not sure that's my goal either."

"That," Obi-wan said, holding up a hand to stop her from saying anything else she might have to that point, "is an argument for another day. Ahsoka, he's not the man you knew before the Clone Wars. Darth Vader is a twisted version of the real Anakin Skywalker. And somehow, he's fooled you into thinking there's something of that person left to get what he wants."

"It's not like that. He goes out of his way to make sure I know that." Ahsoka added bluntly.

"He's a Sith, Ahsoka."

"And the only thing we know about them and the dark side is what we were allowed to learn in the Jedi Temple because they were terrified if we knew anymore, we'd fall to the dark side. And look what happened still," Ahsoka argued. "There's a lot more to it than that. At least for Vader. I can say that for him. Just… have an open mind. Talk to him yourself."

Obi-wan scoffed. "That's supposing the first thing he doesn't do is try to kill me."

"I'll talk him down first," Ahsoka assured. "He's not the person he was before the Empire, true. And frankly, I'm not sure that was ever the real him anyway. But some of that person is still there. There's good in him. Just give him a chance," Ahsoka pleaded.

Obi-wan sighed heavily with a hand over his eyes.

"I'm almost afraid to ask this because I'm not sure I want to know the answer. But how long?"

"How long have we been trying to take down Palpatine together? Six years so far. The Rebellion wouldn't have gotten anywhere close to where we've gotten so quickly without his help keeping the Emperor's attention away from us," Ahsoka answered.

"Not that. How long have you been—and I think this may be too strong a word—in love with Darth Vader?"

Ahsoka sputtered. "Wait… what? We aren't… I'm not in love with him."

"Maybe not. But you feel something. You're a lot more subtle about it than Anakin was with Padmé, but you're not going all the way to Jakku to find Darth Vader on a maybe just because he's your co-conspirator," Obi-wan pointed out. Then he pointed to her lekku and said, "And those give you away."

"It's…" Ahsoka fiddled with the end of one of said lekku and rolled her eyes, "We're figuring it out." When he didn't respond, Ahsoka quickly added, "It's not like we planned it or put any effort toward it. We spent the better part of five or six years hating each other and something… just sort of happened."

"Oh, I'm sure you just opened your eyes one day, and out of nowhere, you decided you wanted to be romantically involved with a Sith Lord."

Ahsoka gave a sheepish shrug and said, "I mean… it sort of did happen that way."

Obi-wan gave her a long unimpressed look but said nothing for a long few moments.

Finally, he said, "I suppose it's too late to turn back now. We're already halfway there."

* * *

**AN: **It's really been fun to have Obi-wan out this loop when he probably knows the two better than most in the galaxy, but his preconceptions prevent him from really seeing what's going on until Ahsoka spells it out for him. Also, Ahsoka's preconceptions of him from when they were both Jedi and after the Empire have prevented her from being very forthright with him about everything. Regardless, we're on the way to resolving all that.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review please. I appreciate it!


	47. Contingency

**Chapter Forty-Seven: ****Contingency**

Vader's patience always wore dangerously thin. But having to bid his time waiting while pretending to be a captive with a short-circuited respirator definitely depleted what little of it he had. After almost a day, he used what limited access to the Force he had to put himself in a semi-conscious meditative state to pass the time. Two days later, Gallius Rax finally arrived, radiating the smugness his rivals always did when they thought they'd one-upped him.

"When I was told an intruder had been captured, I would have never thought it was Lord Vader," the man said, coming into the room. He practically vibrated with glee despite his stern demeanor.

Vader rolled his eyes behind the mask. His sheer delusional audacity and arrogance were almost enough to bring Vader out of his bad mood from having to wait on the man. To think he could be taken down by three annoying children. Did his rivals really think so little of him? Or did they tell themselves he wasn't as strong as the galaxy thought him to be so they could sleep better at night? Vader didn't care. The Empire's underestimation of him was his advantage.

"What will the Emperor say when I report this to him?" said the dark-haired man.

"What will the Emperor say when he finds out you couldn't keep Contingency secret?" Vader asked carefully.

Rax paused at that. "How did you find out about that?"

"Your little child soldiers weren't quick enough," Vader taunted.

Rax's lips formed a thin line, but he wasn't any more forthcoming. Vader could demand the man tell him everything, but he'd learned from Sabé over the years that sometimes, to get people to reveal the entire story, you had to give them an outline and tempt them to fill in the details.

"I found out all about Palpatine's plan to destroy the Empire in case any rebellion succeeds against him and to take its remnants into hiding."

"It's not to destroy the Empire. It's to save it," Rax corrected, unexpectedly.

"Save it?"

"What? Did you think the Emperor would trust something as magnificent as the Empire to you only for you to ruin it?"

"And you think he's going to trust you?"

"More than he trusts you. And rightfully so since you're only his glorified attack dog. Without someone to hold onto your leash, the Emperor is well aware that you'd only destroy his legacy."

Vader wondered how old Rax was when Palpatine got to him. The whole idea that the man thought he'd be saving the Empire, whereas he thought Vader at the helm would destroy it, was insanity. The Emperor was clearly using him for his own petty revenge scheme in case someone gained the upper hand against him. The man cared only about his ambitions, and if Palpatine couldn't have the galaxy, he'd make sure no one could.

"What did he promise you?" Vader asked.

"What?"

"What did he promise you? Or what do you think you'll get out of this if you carry out this plan?" Vader asked. "Visions of grandeur? An equal place next to him? To save someone you care about?"

Rax was silent, but the Force pressed Vader on.

"Let me disabuse you of your delusion. It's all a lie. Whatever it is, once the Emperor gets what he wants, and you've lost your worth, he'll dispose of you and move on to the next pitiful pet that's willing to eat out the palm of his hand. I looked at that plan, and the Emperor doesn't need you to execute it. He doesn't trust or admire you any more than he trusts or admires me. Palpatine simply trusts that you will fall victim to his lie and carry out his instructions to his benefit. Then he'll only keep you around until you become a liability to his ambitions."

"Sounds like you know from experience," Rax observed.

"Exactly."

It wasn't much, but it was enough to shake the foundations of Rax's devotion. He hadn't expected Vader to admit that.

"But go ahead. Contact the Emperor. Let him comfort you with pretty little lies and try to convince us both that this is just a misunderstanding," Vader sneered.

Rax watched Vader in contemplative silence, doubt permeating the Force from him. Finally, the man said, "I suppose we'll both see what the Emperor has to say about this."

He turned on his heel and left the room, activating the ray shield with it. Vader had no intention of letting Rax get far enough to be able to contact the Emperor. Vader wasn't positive what he was going to do with the man or his little child soldiers, but he'd figure it out.

The cuffs only dampened his connection to the Force, not wholly eliminated it like he'd known these kinds of restraints to do in the past. Faulty mechanics, Vader assumed. He closed his eyes, having to put a little more effort into accessing his powers. But when he'd accessed enough, he quickly undid the release on the cuffs, ignoring the brief shock that went through him to try to deter him from using the Force.

The full breadth of the Force didn't return to him as he fell, and Vader assumed that the thin shield in the walls also had Force dampening properties. But he still had more access to the Force than he'd had before. He managed to catch himself and fall into a kneeling position, taking a moment to gain his bearings from the slight rush of having some of his powers back. Even with his powers only partially returned, he immediately sensed the carefully shielded light of Ahsoka's Force presence nearby.

Before he could wonder why that was, he heard a commotion in the hall, the heavy thud of a fallen body, and light footsteps coming toward his cell. The ray shield fell again, and Ahsoka walked into the room.

"Vader," she said, relief clear in her tone.

He finally stood to his feet. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, when your end of the Force bond dims, I get a little concerned," Ahsoka explained. "And I can see why. Goodness. It's a wonder I could sense you at all. This room is like a vacuum in the Force. I can't feel anything at all now."

"It's not _that_ bad."

"Vader, I just have a bare impression of your Force signature right now. It is that bad." Before he could dismiss her again, she asked, "You got captured?"

"I didn't get captured." At Ahsoka's skeptical expression, Vader clarified, "I did but on purpose. I'm following a lead on some intel that Sabé couldn't follow herself."

"I'm sure getting captured wasn't part of the plan. Otherwise, Sabé would have told me."

"You talked to Sabé?"

"How else do you think I found out you were out here?" She paused. "You okay? That doesn't sound good."

It took Vader a minute to realize she was referring to his respirator.

"I'm fine," Vader replied. Then, because he wasn't sure what to do with her obvious concern over him, he added, "And you didn't need to come all the way out here. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I don't require you worrying over me."

As he said this, he fiddled with trying to take off his mask because breathing with it was getting too inconvenient. Rather than making some snippy response, Ahsoka reached up, swatted his hands away, and disconnected the helmet and mask herself.

As she fiddled with it to hook it onto the right side of his utility belt, she said softly, "I know you don't. I'm going to anyway."

Not entirely sure what to do with that comment, though he certainly knew well enough where it stemmed from and what she was hinting at, Vader started to change the subject. Ahsoka beat him to it.

"Before we get out of here, though, I need to let you know that I didn't come by myself. And if I could have avoided it, I would have. But he insisted."

"Who insisted?" Vader demanded. There weren't many people in the galaxy who could insist on something and Ahsoka would care. She barely cared when he insisted on something. Most of the time, he just outmaneuvered her.

"A Jedi," Ahsoka said, and before Vader could respond to that, she turned her head and said, "You can come around the corner now, Obi-wan."

Vader had pushed Ahsoka aside and taken one menacing step forward before Obi-wan even managed to cross the threshold. Ahsoka stepped back in front of him, placing her hands on his chest.

"Vader. He's not here to fight you."

"He doesn't need to be."

"He's willing to hear us out."

"Last time someone told me something like that, he tried to kill me."

"Vader, I almost did kill you."

"Not on purpose. And that was after you stopped him from trying to kill me," Vader pointed out.

"He's willing to talk to you. He might even help us."

"Sure. Because his help was so great before."

"Vader," Ahsoka said, standing her ground in front of him and putting a hand on her hip while leaving the other on his chest. "I wouldn't have come here with him if I thought for a minute that he wouldn't give you a chance when I asked him. Now you have to give him one."

Vader silently stared at Ahsoka and then looked past her at Obi-wan, who was standing in the entry with his arms crossed and a considering expression. Vader hadn't gotten a good look at the man the last time he came across him. He'd aged, more than Vader would have expected in the last few years. And he didn't wear traditional Jedi robes anymore, but most Jedi didn't wear the Jedi robes of old nowadays. He was tense, apprehensive like he should be in the presence of a Sith Lord, hand strategically placed where he could quickly grab his lightsaber. Yet, he hadn't moved into a position indicating he was ready to or ready for an attack.

"You are lucky I have much more pressing matters to deal with right now," Vader said sharply.

Then he stepped around Ahsoka and forced himself to walk past Obi-wan and out the cell, only to have to duck out the way of the blade of the blonde-haired adept that he'd faced before.

"Perfect timing," Vader said, backing out the striking range of the blade and summoning his lightsaber, which the girl had arrogantly hung on her hip after taking it earlier.

"We beat you once. We can do it again," she declared as her two companions emerged from the shadows. Both held long shock blades pointed at him.

Behind him, not even Ahsoka could hold back a scoff at that.

All three children attacked him, and Vader effortlessly blocked their attacks. If he had time to toy with them, he would have. As it was, he had to fill Ahsoka in and try not to kill her Jedi companion. He cut off the hand of the boy holding a shock blade, stabbed the girl holding the shock blade in the shoulder, and finally disarmed the adept of her blade, intending to stab her straight through the heart after, but then she, along with the other children, flew backward and out his reach from a Force push.

"They are kids!" Ahsoka yelled.

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious."

"You can't kill innocent children."

"I'm missing the innocent part."

"As horrifyingly entertaining as all this is, we have a problem," Obi-wan cut in as soldiers in black robes with armor came their way, some holding shock blades, others holding blasters.

"Kriff," Ahsoka said, grabbing onto Vader's hand and pulling him in the opposite direction.

"Why are we running?"

"Because they're kids, Vader."

"Kids pointing deadly weapons at us."

Vader followed her down the hall anyway, covering her from the blaster fire that began to rain upon them with his bulk and inadvertently protecting Obi-wan also.

"You are more deadly than any of those weapons, and you know it," Ahsoka said, skidding to a stop in front of a door. She opened it, peeked inside, and then said, "This way."

It turned out to be a stairway, and before he could _try_ to stop her, Ahsoka jumped over the railing to fall down the space in the middle and escape their pursuers. Pursuers that Vader could make quick work of if she didn't insist on stopping his every attempt. He could even kill them now since she'd so thoughtlessly left him to follow her down.

He ended up jumping over the rail to follow her. Force knew she had an aptitude for finding trouble at every corner.

He landed approximately seven stories down, using the Force and rolling into a crouch to break his fall. Already, Ahsoka had broken the lock on the door and was looking out the exit to the stairway.

Obi-wan landed next to him and asked, "Where are we?"

"I don't know," Ahsoka replied as she exited the stairway into a lit hall. "But something tells me we need to follow."

Vader agreed with her on that and followed. The hall was vast and at least twice as tall as Vader with multiple doors on each side, reminding Vader of a dormitory, like the quarters at the Jedi Temple. Ahsoka palmed one of the doors, revealing a sparse bedroom with four bunks, confirming Vader's suspicions. It was a dormitory.

"What do they need living quarters for?" Ahsoka asked.

Vader had a feeling he already knew. Diya found this place tracking a shipment of kidnapped children. Rather than answering, Vader followed his senses and made his way down the long hall until he came to a set of wide stairs that intersected the hallway. He climbed them until he came to another hall. Rather than following it, though, he walked right to the viewing port right across from the stairs.

Down in a big room were dozens of children. All different species of human and near-human and all training various levels of weaponry and combat.

"Vader. Why did you—?" Ahsoka cut herself off when she fell into step next to him. Something like surprise and curiosity emanated from her. "Vader. What is this?"

"Contingency."

"And what's that?" Obi-wan asked.

"Something that just made taking the Empire from Palpatine and killing him a lot more complicated is what," Vader answered, his irritation at Obi-wan's presence forgotten. "Operation Contingency. I don't know the details. I didn't get a chance to look before I had to… let my opponents underestimate me. But essentially, if we kill Palpatine, he's made it possible to destroy the Empire and anyone left that would have opposed it in one final and brutal war. His goal is to destabilize the galaxy in such a way that no movement would be able to pull the systems back together afterward. At least not for centuries."

"So… he's preparing a rebellion before there's even anything to rebel against, essentially," Ahsoka stated. "Even if you kill him?"

"I would like to think not. But Palpatine conveniently neglected to notify me of this. If Sabé hadn't come across one Gallius Rax and thought he was suspicious, I would have never discovered it."

"But that's… Isn't that against the way of the Sith? The apprentice betrays the master. Isn't that what he eventually wants?"

"Considering Sidious has been through one apprentice after the other, I doubt it. I'm not sure how he plans to manage it, but I've suspected for a long time that he just intends to have a perpetual chain of apprentices while never having to give up the title of master," Vader explained.

"But wouldn't that eventually just bring an end to the Sith? Sidious has to die sometime." Ahsoka hesitated. "Right?

Vader shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time the traits and way of the Sith backfired and brought about the destruction of the Sith or near it. The reason the rule of two exists is to mitigate that. I suppose it was only a matter of time before a Sith came along that not even that rule could help mitigate," Vader said gravely. "But the why of it is irrelevant right now. What does matter is figuring out what we're going to do about this. They have been raised and groomed to serve this plan. Freeing them from this would do nothing but unleash them onto the galaxy to cause trouble. If they would actually go anywhere if we freed them."

Despite the vagueness of his intentions, Ahsoka picked up his line of thought.

"There has to be something we can do. We can't just…We can't kill them all, Vader. They don't know any better."

Vader sighed. "I don't have the energy to argue about this with you. We have to get back to that data room, copy the information, and figure out what to do with Rax."

"Rax. I meant to ask earlier, but who's that?" Ahsoka asked as he made his way down the curved hall. There had to be a lift somewhere.

"The one in charge of Contingency. I didn't get much out of him except confirmation of what I already knew. Maybe with a little more persuasion, I can get something else."

Vader found a lift that needed a code to use. He overrode the simple security with the Force and waited for the lift to come down, Ahsoka speaking again.

"Is he a guy with short dark hair, dark eyes, and pale skin?"

"You ran into him."

"I might have killed him."

Vader couldn't even be particularly upset about that. It was her protocol. She was seen by an Imperial somewhere she wasn't supposed to be, and they met an unfortunate end. It was the only way to preserve her anonymity.

Still, as he pressed the button for what he thought was the uppermost level of the underground facility, he said, "The one time I actually would have liked you to leave someone alive."

"Well, you know. I learned from the best."

"Yes. But now it means we have to figure out a way to keep this little escapade from the Emperor while dismantling it right under his nose," Vader snapped in irritation. Not at Ahsoka, but at the entire situation. Somehow, despite their meticulous planning, Palpatine still managed to anticipate them.

The elevator doors finally opened, and Vader started to lead them out only to immediately be met with blaster fire. He deflected the bolts effortlessly but ducked back into the elevator to avoid an electro ball from a shock blade. He probably could have deflected it with his lightsaber, but he didn't feel like risking that. The suit was damaged enough. Already Vader was feeling a sore sting in his chest that he could ignore for now but was undoubtedly going to get worse.

The electro ball crashed into the back of the lift, and another one fried the lift mechanisms, so the only way out was forward.

"Don't kill them. They're children," Vader mocked, making sure Ahsoka sensed his scorn. "Innocent."

She shoved her elbow into his stomach in response.

Another electro ball crashed into the lift and disturbed its foundation, and Vader made a decision. Ahsoka's reservations be damned.

"You can be furious at me after I save our lives," Vader decided and rushed out the lift again, this time caring where he deflected the blaster bolts. Many of them hit the person they'd initially come from.

He closed the distance between him and the group of child soldiers despite them trying to back away from him. He struck them down by twos and threes with one swipe of his lightsaber. Threw any that tried to attack from behind aside with the Force. They crashed into metal rails and walls, which broke necks and spines. Then, only the blonde Force adept was left. She looked at him with her red lightsaber gripped with both hands as he advanced on her. He didn't even toy with her this time. Just disarmed her in one motion, dragged her to him with the Force, and stabbed her through the chest. She fell to the floor with a dull thud.

He extinguished his blade and waited for Ahsoka to finish her approach and stand behind him.

She looked down at the body with her arms crossed and sighed, "Always two steps forward and one step back with you."

"You're welcome. I was so glad I could save you from getting shot." Before she could reply to that, he continued, "This is war. There was nothing we could have done with them. But I'm open to ideas on what to do with the child army many stories below us if you have any ideas."

Her begrudging resignation at the fact that he was right came across their bond.

"If this is how the two of you show your affection, I'd hate to know what your actual quarrels look like," Obi-wan said, reminding Vader that he was present. He'd been trying to ignore the man. "I can't believe you two are a couple."

Vader stared at him before turning to Ahsoka. That was news to him too. The last and only time they talked about it, they had decided not to call their growing _tolerance_ of each other anything specific.

"Did you tell him that?"

"I didn't say that. I said we were figuring it out," Ahsoka stated and then looked back at Obi-wan. "It's more… We're kind of exclusively not dating anyone else." Ahsoka looked at Vader again and asked, "You're not dating anyone, right?"

Vader gave Ahsoka an incredulous look. "Dating _who_?"

"Sabé, maybe. She's nice."

Vader let out a sound that was something between a scoff and a laugh.

"Are you serious? If we didn't have a similar goal, Sabé would have tried to kill me ages ago." Then, because she'd opened the floodgate, he asked, "Are you? Seeing anyone."

Ahsoka outright laughed. "I haven't had the time for that in _years_."

"You seem to have a lot of time for Cal Kestis."

Ahsoka sputtered. "Cal? We're not—he's like a little brother. Wait. How do you even know about him?"

"It doesn't matter," Vader said dismissively. "What matters is that we need to copy the data about this plan and figure out how we're going to keep this fiasco from Palpatine."

His plan had been to kill Rax's little soldiers, get what he could out the man, and use a dark side technique to adjust his memories and buy them some time to figure out what to do. Now Rax was dead, and so were many of his child soldiers. Palpatine was going to notice. Even if Vader could cover up his involvement, the breech would make his master adjust his plans.

"If I might make a suggestion," Obi-wan said.

"What, Jedi?"

Ahsoka gave him a firm look.

"How about not trying to hide it from Palpatine?"

* * *

**AN: **So... like I said previously. I like the idea of Contingency. It seemed very Palpatine of Palpatine to formulate a plan that was, essentially, if he couldn't have the galaxy, no one would. The man didn't orchestrate creating an Empire out of the Republic without a bunch of contingency plans. The plans we see in the movies are the ones that work. And even Contingency didn't go quite like it was supposed to in canon. That said, I just hated the execution of it in canon. Namely that none of the interesting part about it was in the ST movies! So I'm used bits and pieces of it here. The idea of it anyway. Some of it just made absolutely no sense and mostly because they recycled and reused the same plot of RotJ for tRoS. But I digress. I will not get into a rant or debate about that.

The next chapter is going to be on the longer side. Mostly because I ended up combining two short chapters that flowed together.

Anywho, hoped you enjoyed. Review, please! I enjoy and appreciate your insights!


	48. Anchor

**Chapter Forty-Eight: ****Anchor**

Vader had been doing everything he could to categorically ignore Obi-wan for the most part. Just because Ahsoka brought him along and asked him not to kill him didn't mean Vader had to acknowledge him. But at the man's suggestion, he turned directly to the Jedi and deadpanned, "Are you insane? And potentially expose ourselves and ruin all our plans against Palpatine? Contingency already throws a spanner in everything."

"I have to agree with Vader on this one," Ahsoka said. "No offense—"

"What she means is that we mean every offense," Vader clarified.

Ahsoka continued without addressing him, "But the Jedi's idea of dealing with Palpatine was going right up to the Senate to assassinate the sitting head of state with no proof of his crimes except one of your knight's word, regardless of the fact that it was true. After playing politics for the better part of three years of war, you all really didn't think the politics and repercussions of that one through. So excuse us both if we're skeptical of anything you're going to suggest. Especially when your suggestion is to show Palpatine our hand."

"I was not consulted about that decision. I would have argued against it," Obi-wan replied.

Vader scoffed and rolled his eyes. Hard. "Yeah. Just like you argued with the High Council about letting your friends think you were dead. Or like you argued against Ahsoka's expulsion and trial. And like you argued against getting my former self to spy on Palpatine."

Vader sensed the Jedi's control over his emotions falter, hurt and guilt flashing across his expression and briefly permeating the Force. Vader silently reveled in his accomplishment as silence fell between them. Not even Ahsoka reprimanded him for his cruel remarks. She was too kind to admit it, not liking to encourage his cruelty, but she knew he wasn't wrong. There was a reason she hadn't been willing to talk to Obi-wan before the Clone War's end. In his former life, in his weakness and vain attempts at trying to be the person and Jedi that everyone wanted him to be, he tried to get her to talk to her grandmaster. But Ahsoka had never been the type to willingly or easily acquiesce to anything before she was ready to do it herself. She'd brushed off his attempts, threatening to put him in the same category as the rest of the Jedi if he didn't back off.

Now they had reversed roles. And just like Ahsoka had no intention of forgiving him back then, Vader had no intention of letting any bygones be bygones or making this chance she wanted him to give Obi-wan easy. Obi-wan's betrayal started long before he arrived on Mustafar to kill him. Mustafar had just been the inevitable culmination.

"That," Obi-wan finally replied after a few moments of tense silence, "isn't fair."

"I wasn't trying to be," Vader stated firmly.

Ahsoka finally looked at Obi-wan and chimed in. "I've done all I can. He hasn't killed you yet. He's even willing to end his crusade against the Jedi under the right circumstances."

There was no circumstance under which he'd end his crusade against the Jedi. Ahsoka was just delaying the inevitable. Ahsoka sensed his thought because she sent, _Be quiet, _across the bond before continuing.

"But you have to earn our trust again. So go ahead. Explain your plan. Prove our reservations wrong."

"Think about it. The real goal here shouldn't be to hide anything from the emperor. It's impossible. Rax is going to miss a report, or someone's going to find these dead bodies, and he'll know anyway. You could hide your involvement, but all that would do is put the Emperor on high alert to a new enemy and force him to revise his plans. To abandon this base in favor of another, and then we'll be back where we started before we knew about Contingency," Obi-wan explained. "Your real goal is for him not to become suspicious. And the best way to do that is to just inform him of what you found. The sooner, the better. Right now would be optimal."

"And what? Let him explain it away, give his justified reasons, lie that he always planned on including me in on this plan?" Vader asked.

"Precisely," Obi-wan said. "He lets you in on the plan, however limitedly that's going to be, and that buys time to investigate, follow the threads of this plan, see who and what else is involved, and stop it before there's a chance for it to be initiated."

Vader refused to admit it was a good plan, not when it came from Obi-wan. Ahsoka, however, had no such reservation and turned to him.

"It's a good idea. And it'll reinforce your cover and continue to prove your loyalty to him for now," she said. "What other choice do we have? Obi-wan's right. We can't hide this. Even if Palpatine is still suspicious, it'll be a lot less than if you try to hide that you know about this and he inevitably finds out that you do. Then we'll have a huge problem."

A huge problem on top of the problem they already had of Palpatine planning to destroy all semblance of government stability if they killed him. But they had to do something. Palpatine, no doubt, expected that Vader planned to betray him one day. However, Vader had very carefully crafted a persona of brute strength, impertinent directness, a lack of finesse, patience, and understanding when it came to the nuance of politics and people, and general shortsightedness outside of his evident proficiency for physical battle. Trying to hide that he'd found this facility would undo all the misleading that persona did. Certainly, he had moments where he stepped out of character to make the act seem more authentic. But trying to outmaneuver Sidious by stepping out of that character now was not one of those times.

There were a thousand things that could go wrong with Obi-wan's plan. But there were a thousand things that would definitely go wrong if he didn't go along with it. Even if it only bought them a little time, it would be enough to start redoubling their efforts to get things in motion. First and foremost of which was the completion of the fleet that he and Ahsoka ordered for the Rebellion six years ago.

"I still don't like it," Vader said, pacing away from Ahsoka and Obi-wan.

Obi-wan stayed put. Ahsoka followed him.

She moved to stand directly in front of him, effectively ending his pacing. Vader didn't know when she'd gotten so comfortable invading his personal space, nor did he know when he'd started letting her. For the longest, she'd kept her cautious distance from him for all that she claimed not to fear him. Even when they weren't fighting, she'd always kept an arm's length from him as though waiting for him to lose his temper and attack her.

When their anger and hate toward each other began to cool and their ever-growing tolerance toward each other began to escalate, they went out of their way to avoid each other's personal space. It was easier to not be tempted by their mutual curiosity to see where these new feelings and this new connection might potentially lead; reasons they shouldn't be damned. Vader had done that once, in a previous life. It was a miracle the good that was the twins had come out of the incredibly sordid affair at all.

He should have pushed her and continued to pace. One of them had to be the reasonable one at any given time. But as with a lot of things when it came to Ahsoka, he allowed it.

Ahsoka looked him in the eye, oblivious to the torment having her in such proximity was causing him and said, "You're terrified of Palpatine. Aren't you?"

His first instincts were to deny such a thing, but her caress across the bond told her it was pointless. He wouldn't even admit such a thing to himself, let alone speak the words aloud. Still…

"Not totally."

"Not of what he'll do to you maybe but what he'll do to anything it looks like you care for. Us. The Empire. The galaxy," Ahsoka stated. "Don't worry. You got this."

The dark side threatened to rise up in him, the side of it that was possessive and overprotective and urged him to stake his claim on those that belonged to him whether they liked it or not. He wrestled it under his control again and finally walked past her, getting her out of his space as he unhooked his mask and helmet to put them back into place. When they were finally on, he said, "I'll contact him in the data room. You both need to remain silent and out of sight."

Neither Ahsoka nor Obi-wan argued with that, standing outside the data room and out of sight of the holoreceiver as he put in the codes that would allow him to directly contact the Emperor. As he did this, he carefully and meticulously wrapped himself with layers of the dark side, deeply immersing himself into its power. Purposely pushing the few bright spots in his life to the back of his mind and instead focusing on all the reasons he had to rage, to hate, to suffer. Though many of those afflictions were done at some other's hand, the root cause was Palpatine's manipulative hand turning people against each other for his own gain.

He knelt down on one knee with his head bowed, and a few moments later, the Emperor's image appeared on the receiver.

"Rise, Lord Vader," the man said.

Vader stood to his feet and looked at the image, mood instantly plunging at the sight and driving him further into the depths of the dark side.

"Where have you been?" the man asked. "I contacted your flagship and was told you'd gone on a classified off-grid mission. Without informing me?"

Vader would never know how he'd ever missed Palpatine's true intentions toward him. Before the Empire, when the man was still acting as Chancellor, he would have thought the man's line of questioning was simply out of concern. Now Vader knew that it was his master's way of keeping him on a tight leash and under his complete control. There was also the veiled threat of punishment at a later date if he gave the Emperor the wrong answer.

"I received reports of rebellion activity on Jakku," Vader replied. It was true, from a certain point of view, as both the Jedi and the Sith liked to argue. "It appeared they gathered enough resources to sustain an underground base in the area. What I found was Contingency."

There was little he could do to stop his rage from surfacing at what he'd found. But Palpatine probably expected that anyway. Just for entirely different reasons.

Vader said nothing else. His blunt statement of what he found was accusation enough with just enough hint of disrespect to both offend his master and be expected of him had he not been planning to depose Palpatine.

"Ah, yes," the man said. "It was never my intention to keep the operation hidden from you."

Nothing that could reflect poorly on Sidious was ever his intention. Still, Vader kept that comment to himself and let his master continue explaining himself.

"Surely, you see the necessity of keeping it hidden and the necessity of having such a plan."

"No," Vader responded bluntly, seething at the implication of his unawareness. "I do not see the necessity of planning to destroy the Empire we have gone through such pains to establish."

"An Empire that if our enemies were to succeed in removing us, would not be strong enough to withstand those who would find the audacity to strike against it and cause chaos. No person in the Empire can match our combined might and control. Thus the only thing to do as to not tarnish our legacy and to maintain victory from beyond is to make sure that those who would oppose it would be unable to take advantage and usurp control."

Vader knew better than to ask about peace. About order. Because a plan to destabilize the Empire and then lure the remnants of it and the Rebellion to a final conflict on Jakku would do nothing except cause grief, pain, and chaos. But the Emperor did not care about that. That was the kind of thing he lived for. If he could not have the galaxy, no one would. It was not their legacy Sidious cared about. Only his own. What he had glimpsed of the man's plan made that abundantly clear. The only reason he was now including Vader in it was that he had no choice. And Vader knew even that would be limited.

Vader refrained from replying for a few moments. He would have to word his next inquiry very carefully.

"Have you seen that our fates are so precarious as to necessitate such a plan? Who could possibly—?"

"While I do not doubt our might in a direct conflict, the Jedi are devious and persistent. I am sure that is something you have observed in your continued efforts to ensure their extinction. Contingency is meant to deal with one slim possibility in the event that it becomes an inevitability. We must account for all possibilities, Lord Vader, no matter how slim the chances of them coming into fruition might be."

The words were vague, but Vader understood the sentiment. Not only was Sidious accounting for the slim chance of a rebellion succeeding in a hostile takeover, but he was also preparing for what he thought was the slim chance of Vader betraying him before he outlived his usefulness. Vader held back a sneer. There was no slim chance about it. His betrayal of Sidious and claiming of his throne was a certainty. Vader had already seen it. Contingency was only another obstacle to maneuver around.

"Perhaps, you can glean more understanding from Gallius Rax. He's the one I've put in charge of this operation," Sidious said.

Vader paused before saying, "Rax has recently met…an unfortunate demise."

Sidious frowned, and Vader knew he had pressed the man's patience too far. Gallius Rax had been necessary for this undertaking. He reminded himself to thank Ahsoka for that at some point.

"We will further discuss the matter on your return to Coruscant," Sidious finally declared.

Vader understood it to mean that as soon as he was back with his fleet, Coruscant was his next stop. Vader dared not complain about it, though. He was already in enough trouble.

"Yes, my master."

Sidious cut the communications.

* * *

If there was any legitimacy to the Jedi philosophy that when someone fell to the dark side, it twisted them so much that they effectively killed their former selves, then the proof was the change Ahsoka sensed in Vader when he contacted Palpatine. Like a thick, toxic shroud, the dark side consumed him until even Ahsoka would have had to inspect him closely with the Force to recognize him. When the conversation between the master and apprentice began, gone were the easy, somewhat informal cadences that she was used to, replaced by a stiff, formal cadence that left no room for personality. Gone was the lack of tact, the sarcasm, the argumentative tone, replaced with something more deliberate and cautious. Gone was her only real friend (and probably something more), replaced with a creature that pleased the Emperor.

This was the Vader the galaxy feared. This was the Vader willing and able to commit great atrocities at the Emperor's behest. This was the Vader that Breha feared would hurt Ahsoka one day. This was the Vader that Ahsoka had never encountered because the person behind it kept that side away from her and the twins. The closest Ahsoka may have ever glimpsed of it was back on Mustafar all those years ago in the immediate fallout of the Republic's fall. But even then, he hadn't been this black void. A void so black, it was like he'd disappeared from the familiar place in the back of her mind where she knew his presence in the Force to reside.

So it was with far more relief than Ahsoka would ever admit that Vader's conversation with Palpatine finally ended. Slowly, she sensed Vader—the one she was familiar with, not the black despot that he forced himself to be for the Emperor—begin to claw his way back to the surface, battling his way out of the depths of the dark side until he wasn't utterly consumed by its hold.

Ahsoka came from behind the wall and went into the data room, finding Vader standing stiffly with his hands at his side. She moved to stand in front of him and asked tentatively, "Are you okay?"

For a long time, he didn't answer. He might have escaped the hold of the darkness, but it didn't give up so easily, and still, he fought to wrestle it back under his control rather than the other way around. Finally, he replied, "Just… give me a minute."

A minute might be all he needed to wrestle the darkness under control, but he didn't have to fight it alone. It was probably a dangerous idea to touch his mind with the Force. There was no telling how he'd respond to it in this fragile state nor what the backlash might do to her psyche. That said, what she did decide to do was somehow both a safer and riskier alternative. Tentatively, she reached her hand out, catching his gloved right hand in hers. He didn't do anything for a while, and Ahsoka wasn't sure if that was out of surprise or rejection or distraction or something else.

As an unspoken rule, they avoided physical touch. Not that they hadn't avoided it anyway. When they'd both been Jedi, Vader had always been more tactile than most Jedi. But even a hug or a pat between the montrals or a playful shoulder shove were far and few in between. Limited mostly to high stress, emotionally charged situations when the stoic Jedi persona he'd tried so hard to maintain cracked. Rare enough that it wasn't something she learned to expect but still another odd thing about him compared to other Jedi that she just got used to. Still, her upbringing in the temple meant she'd never been comfortable enough to initiate much contact herself. By the time she'd seen him again after the Empire's rise, days filled with hugs, comforting caresses, and kisses while raising the twins and passionate embraces during her brief relationship with May had gotten her more accustomed to the familiar comforts of physical touch. But Ahsoka had hardly wanted to be in the same room as Vader and vice versa at that point. The only time they had gotten in each other's personal space was for harm.

Lately, the avoidance had everything to do with not being tempted by their growing non-platonic attraction toward each other. They already gravitated more into each other's personal space when they were in the same place now, but physical touch of any form was a boundary not to tempt. And Ahsoka would not be hurt or surprised if Vader turned it away.

He didn't, though. Instead, after a few moments, his fingers curled around hers and clutched her like she was an anchor so that the depths of the dark side couldn't pull him back again.

When he spoke again, the formal cadence was gone, but he was curt and sparing with his words.

"We must act quickly to get ahead of this."

"But how?" Ahsoka asked. "You may have bought us some time, but no doubt the Emperor's going to tweak the plan. And there is no telling how many moles and plants there are and where they're at to sabotage the Empire and bring it to ruin if we kill the Emperor."

"Sabé and her task force already have their hands full."

"So does Diya. And I think it's too dangerous for her, let alone any of my other spies," Ahsoka added.

"Then let us do it," Obi-wan cut in.

Ahsoka turned from Vader to look at her former grandmaster. She'd been so wrapped up in Vader and working out their new obstacle, she'd forgotten he was there.

"Who's us?" Ahsoka asked.

"Stinger Crew," Obi-wan said, referring to the name they'd given Cal and his team, named after Greez's ship. He continued, "It makes sense. Before they ever found me, they traversed the galaxy and infiltrated Imperial bases, trying to figure out how to unlock a vault to get to a holocron with a list of Force-sensitive children. They even infiltrated the inquisitor headquarters. If they were able to do that, surely they'd be able to effectively investigate Contingency."

"That's… not a bad idea," Ahsoka replied. Then she turned to Vader and said, "And they managed to escape you. That's got to count for something."

"I am not entirely sure how much faith I'm willing to put into a group of criminals who thought it would be a good idea to start rebuilding the Jedi Order mere years after the rise of the Empire with dozens of inquisitors and Force adepts prowling around the galaxy hunting them."

"They destroyed the holocron. I told you that."

"The fact that they thought it was a good idea at all gathering that many Force-sensitives in one place and making themselves both a beacon and an easy target says substantially more."

Ahsoka wondered if he was aware of the way he was now playing with her hand. Going back and forth between intertwining their fingers, rubbing a thumb against the palm of her hand, or lightly tapping his fingers on the back of it.

Finally, Vader sighed and said, "But as much as I disagree with it, I also have no one else to trust with the task."

"Rest assured. I'll be with them," Obi-wan said.

Ahsoka let out a snort of a laugh. She wasn't sure if Obi-wan was serious or messing with Vader. Either way, the statement couldn't be reassuring. Never mind that Vader didn't trust Obi-wan, but Obi-wan had been known for being accident and trouble-prone during the Clone War. Commander Cody was always grumbling about the man not being able to keep up with his lightsaber and acting like he had no sense of self-preservation. Obi-wan was more likely to get Stinger Crew into trouble than he was to keep them out of it.

"And they thought we were reckless," Vader grumbled in response to her thought, an occurrence that happened so frequently between them that she'd stop wondering at it.

"No. They thought we were impertinent," Ahsoka corrected. "We were."

"We shouldn't push our luck with the Emperor any longer. You need to get out of here," Vader said. "Were you caught on camera or seen?"

"I don't think so. And I took out the guards manning the bunker above ground before we took the lift down here."

Vader nodded, though Ahsoka was sure he'd be checking the security systems and modifying them himself when she and Obi-wan were gone.

He pulled his hand from hers. Ahsoka ignored the part of her that missed his touch, even through the thick leather of his gloves. He took the mask and helmet back off, the weird whistling of the pacemaker no doubt tasking his respiratory system more than it would be taxed without it. Then he strode out the data room, presumably heading toward the lift that would take them back above ground. Ahsoka followed in silence with Obi-wan close behind.

Once they were above ground and inside the control center, Ahsoka paused, turned to Obi-wan, and asked, "Mind giving us a minute?"

Obi-wan gave her a very pointed look. One that told her he still had his reservations about all this and that she was in for a long talk with him once they were in hyperspace. Once he seemed satisfied that she understood that, he sighed and went to stand outside in the hot, Jakku desert air.

Before Vader could ask what she wanted, Ahsoka asked, "Is it always like that with Palpatine? I mean…with the dark side. You use it all the time, and it's part of you, but I usually recognize you in the Force. That back there…"

"I'm not fond of delving that deep into the dark side and giving it so much control either," Vader said, answering the statement that went unsaid in her observation. "But it's necessary to continue deceiving him."

"How do you…" Ahsoka trailed off, for once frustrated at her lack of understanding of the dark side of the Force as she searched for the words to describe what she'd sensed. "How do you come back from that? How do you go completely off the deep end like that and pull yourself right back so easily?"

She remembered how hard it had been to pull herself just from the edge of falling into the dark side. She couldn't imagine going so deep into the depths of its total darkness and then pulling back to just traverse its shadows instead.

"It's gotten easier over time. There was no choice in the matter."

"Yeah. But how?" Ahsoka insisted.

He turned his gaze from her, and when he looked back, his eyes, which had been entirely yellow, had flecks of their natural blue in them. She could always tell how close to the surface the dark side was in him by how much blue was in his eyes. When the twins were around, they were almost always wholly blue as he kept the dark side at its most suppressed around them.

Finally, he said, "I think about how if I don't get it under control, you'll probably impale me. That or nag me to death. I haven't figured out which one I would prefer."

He meant to tease her, despite his even tone, but the words still wrung with truth. Part of it. It was the closest thing he'd ever get to admitting that he used her as an anchor. Ahsoka would spare his ego and not point it out. She'd spare them both. Neither was ready to talk about what that meant. About what it meant that he hadn't said he thought about the twins, something that would have been a safer answer.

Instead, she laughed, leaned her forehead on his shoulder, and grabbed his hand again.

"What are you doing?" he asked but didn't push her away.

"I don't really know," Ahsoka admitted. Then, emboldened by his acceptance of her into his personal space, she closed the distance between them and pressed herself flush against him and closed her eyes.

She reached out with her senses toward his presence and then blanketed herself with it. Now, having truly seen him immersed in the depths of the dark side of the Force, she realized that his Force presence was more like nighttime on Tatooine. She'd only seen it once, years back when Bail sent her to find Obi-wan. Cool, dark, definitely filled with hidden dangers that used the darkness as a cover, but with just enough light from the stars littered in the sky to not be completely blinded. Even for a human, Ahsoka was sure.

"I'm going to tell Obi-wan about the twins."

"I suppose you wouldn't change your mind even if I argued with you about it." He was playing with her hand again.

"It was cruel of me to keep it from him in the first place." She pointedly ignored the rising tension, very distinct from the one she'd gotten used to during their usual disagreements. "He really misses you, you know. He felt—He _feels_ so guilty. About everything. He just needs time."

"He misses Anakin Skywalker. And that person has been gone for a long time," Vader reminded.

"Maybe," Ahsoka breathed. She wouldn't argue with him about that today. She rubbed her thumb along the back of his hand. "But I think he'd like to get to know the new you too. The one I know. Not the person you have to be to trick Palpatine and the rest of the Empire."

"It is far too late for that," Vader said after a few beats. A pause. Then, "You should leave now."

"Yeah," Ahsoka said with a sigh. "I should. Before Obi-wan gets too antsy waiting."

She stood up straight and took her hand out his grasp, leaving out the doors of the control center without giving any wistfulness a chance to root.

"Ready?" she asked Obi-wan.

"If you are." His eyes went past Ahsoka, to where Vader was still standing a few feet behind her.

Ahsoka sensed a quick exchange between the former master and apprentice pair that might have been an agreement to withhold judgment for the time being.

"I am," Ahsoka said, leading the way back to the dunes not too far away, where they'd hid the speeder they borrowed from the settlement they'd left their ship at.

The ride back was filled with a pregnant but companionable silence. Obi-wan, Ahsoka got the feeling, needed to gather his thoughts. Ahsoka needed to erase and forget the phantom sensation of Vader's hand in hers and his body pressed flushed, though chastely, against hers. To get her own feelings back under strict control and resemble something more becoming of the twenty-six-year-old woman she presently was. Not the fifteen or sixteen-year-old teenager she'd once been, who hadn't known what to do with being attracted to someone.

It took a few hours into their hyperspace trip for Obi-wan to approach her where she was sitting in the cockpit with her datapad.

He settled himself next to her in the co-pilot's chair while Ahsoka set her datapad aside. Only once he had her total attention did Obi-wan begin to speak.

"I'm going to be completely honest with you. I didn't get enough of a glimpse of Vader to be able to gauge whether or not you're right about him. Therefore, I can't say I've changed my mind about what you've gotten yourself into. Nor can I say that I don't think you aren't setting yourself up for disappointment.," Obi-wan said bluntly, straight to the point.

Ahsoka didn't say anything yet. Obi-wan had more to say. She'd give him time to say it.

"That said, I can see the merit in your thinking that our best chance of defeating Palpatine and the Empire for good is having Vader on our side. The Death Star was enough to convince me of that, but especially now knowing about Contingency," Obi-wan said thoughtfully. Then he sighed and said, "And maybe—strictly maybe—if there were a way to bring him back from the dark side, to save him from the Sith, you're probably the only one alive right now that could."

Ahsoka sensed a lot of things from Obi-wan. Guilt. Wistfulness. An old weariness of the soul. Worry. But not sincerity, though somehow, he also wasn't lying.

"You don't have to tell me that if you don't believe it's true. You wouldn't be the first person. Vader is one of the few things Breha and I disagree on," Ahsoka stated.

"I think it's true that you might be the one who could do it, not that I'm sure it's possible, young one."

Ahsoka sighed. "I suppose that's better than a few months ago. What changed?"

"Nothing in particular. Just… I suppose watching you two back there reminded me of something."

"What exactly?"

"Did Anakin… Did he ever tell you about the things that really transpired behind the scenes after your exoneration? With the Council, and the Senate, and Tarkin?" Obi-wan said with a sigh like just thinking about it was as tiring as experiencing it.

"Not really. He told me it wasn't anything to worry about and that he was handling it. I didn't want to deal with it, anyway. So I believed him. He wouldn't even let Padmé tell me anything other than it was something to do with botched paperwork."

Obi-wan laughed. "It was far more than botched paperwork, my dear. Your exoneration wasn't so much an official exoneration as it was that with Barriss' confession, their theory of your involvement was proven untrue. Therefore there was no basis to finish the trial. But between the fact that you and Barriss had been friends and the manner in which Anakin discovered and revealed her involvement, you weren't totally cleared of suspicion in the legal system. Some in the Senate, as well as Tarkin himself, were advocating for a new trial. In fact, right after your reinstatement into the Order, they wanted to have you go for more questioning."

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes. "Really? I knew some people still thought I was guilty, but they were still gunning for me from the legal side of it all?"

"Oh, definitely," Obi-wan said. "The last thing the Republic wanted was to make it seem like they'd been made a fool of, so they tried a different avenue to get to you."

"Glad I didn't know that," Ahsoka muttered. "I would have left the Order and gotten as far away from the Republic as possible if I had."

"Anakin did know that as he so _eloquently_ informed the Council in the days and weeks spent arguing with them, Tarkin, and Tarkin's prosecuting team." Obi-wan tried to sound disapproving but failed miserably. Ahsoka knew he always had taken a muted satisfaction in watching Anakin's antics.

"I knew he was having a lot of meetings with the Council, but I didn't know it was over that. I thought it was preparing for the knighting. He told me he was bribing them to allow Padmé to be there or something like that," Ahsoka recalled. She'd suppressed a lot of that fallout deep within her memory. Not to mention, Anakin had kept her busy with last-minute training in preparation for her knighting.

"We both know Anakin wasn't necessarily gifted with a way with words, but he found the right ones then. He fought for you. Harder than I'd ever seen him fight for anything. The Council even tried to suggest as an appeasement to the Senate and the prosecution and a way for the Order not to attract any controversy to push your knighting back five or six standard months. Give everything a chance to blow over. Naturally, Anakin didn't like that. He threatened to leave the Order, leave the GAR, take you with him, and then go to the biggest news source he could find and spill every classified secret the Order tried so hard to keep hidden." Obi-wan laughed. "He said, and I'm directly quoting, 'How's that for a kriffing controversy?'"

Ahsoka wondered if Anakin had come up with that on his own or if Padmé assisted him. Because that was one hell of a political maneuver using leverage he'd definitely had at the time. Then again, Anakin had always just hated playing politics. He'd never been incapable of grasping them. When she'd explained the politics and nuances of the Rebellion to him once, he'd thought the entire thing was ridiculous and that all of High Command needed to be threatened with a lightsaber. But he hadn't been incapable of grasping their reasoning.

"In hindsight, maybe it should have been apparent then that he was willing to turn on the Order if the choice were ever presented to him. If we weren't already stretched thin with the war, he would have certainly earned censure for it. But Anakin got his point across and was fully prepared to turn over his lightsaber right then and there," Obi-wan said, sounding somewhere between dismayed at Anakin's audacity and proud of his indignation. "There would have been little the Council could have done to stop him without arousing suspicion. The Council agreed to your immediate knighting and to push back against Tarkin, the prosecution, and even part of the Senate who were trying to save face after such an egregious error."

Ahsoka huffed. "No wonder they tried to keep us separate after that."

While it was clear that Anakin always had attachment issues, that kind of behavior, even in her rightful defense, would have screamed unhealthy attachment to the Council. Add her own underlying rage and rebellious nature at the time into the mix, and as far as the Council would have been concerned, the best way to solve both problems would be to keep them apart from each other.

"You noticed?"

"It was fairly obvious. Turns out, I didn't need Anakin's encouragement."

"Didn't we find that out," Obi-wan said with a chuckle. "You know, when Yoda paired you with Anakin, it was both with the hope that you'd quell each other's similar qualities that were unseemly a Jedi and because Yoda wasn't sure anyone else would be able to deal with you." At the innocent, clueless expression Ahsoka gave him, Obi-wan said, "Anakin didn't, but I did go back and read your record. It was quite interesting."

Ahsoka shrugged. So maybe she'd gotten in trouble a handful of times as a youngling and an initiate because of her snippiness and curiosity. Because of one or two indignant outbursts or acts of civil disobedience over something that wasn't fair. That hadn't just happened when she became a padawan.

"Can I be truthful with you?" Obi-wan asked.

"I wouldn't want anything else."

"Truthfully, when he turned and I found out you'd followed him to Mustafar, I was afraid you'd follow him to the darkness."

"Wanna hear my truth?" Ahsoka asked in return, not offended by the implications of the comment. She didn't wait for Obi-wan to agree. "After I left Mustafar, after Padmé died and I was on the run, I hated him so much for turning on us and wanted the man I knew back so much, I almost did."

Because Ahsoka couldn't say for sure if Luke and Leia hadn't been there that she would have stopped herself. The demands of two newborns had added to her stress and initial dismay, but she couldn't say it would have made a difference. Maybe delayed her getting close to the edge. But she couldn't be sure she would have pulled herself back. Ahsoka had decided long ago it was better not to dwell on something that never happened.

"What stopped you?"

Ahsoka knew the answer to that without a doubt and opened her mouth to say it until she remembered she still hadn't told Obi-wan about Luke and Leia.

"I'll show you," Ahsoka said instead. "When we get to Alderaan. Hopefully, you won't hate me afterward."

"I'm a Jedi. We don't hate."

"You might after this. And I'd completely deserve it."

* * *

**AN: **1) I was really looking forward to getting to this chapter because it answers a lot of questions about Vader in this story. I have gotten a few comments about the "duplicity" of Vader. How sometimes he's very clearly "Vader," but sometimes not the Vader we know from canon. And how sometimes he seems more Anakin and sometimes he's a lot more Vader and sometimes you can't make sense of him. That's the point. He's supposed to be that way because he presents himself in many different ways depending on who he's dealing with. So when dealing with Palpatine and pretending to be Palpatine's most loyal enforcer, he's the Vader from canon. When he's with the twins he's probably closer to the Anakin from the Clone Wars. And he's probably at his truest self when he's with Ahsoka although there's clearly a lot of unbalance to him. And with everyone else, he's probably somewhere between the person he is with Ahsoka and the person he is for Palpatine.

2) As a law student (who may or may not become a lawyer because eh), I am absolutely fascinated with the fall out of Ahsoka's "exoneration" because if we're basing this on real life, it doesn't really work this way. Barriss' confession only discounted the theory or the charge they brought Ahsoka up on. There were other theories (unfair as it would have been) that she could have been tried under (like accessory). And given all the bad press the Republic had with the war, they absolutely would have been loathe to admit they almost sentenced the wrong person, a seventeen-year-old girl. And they absolutely would have tried to try her all over again under a different theory without some pushback. At some point, I am going to write the story of the immediate fallout of Ahsoka staying with the Order. As a one-shot. And no time soon. But Obi-wan pretty much explains the gist of it.

3) So the slow burn is burning a little quicker. I know most of you like that.

4) It is not a spoiler to say that Obi-wan meets the twins next chapter.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review, please! I appreciate it.


	49. Obi-wan's Interlude

**Chapter Forty-Nine: Obi-wan's Interlude**

It was going to be a while before Obi-wan got used to seeing Ahsoka as the self-assured adult woman leading a rebellion that she'd grown into and not the lost young woman trying to find her place before the end of the Clone War. Or even the angry young woman who visited him on Tatooine not long after. Regardless, it was a relief to see her thriving, to have seemed to found her place in this dangerous galaxy they all found themselves thrust into…even if he still wasn't sure about her _arrangement_ with Darth Vader.

Ahsoka always ended up doing whatever she wanted, however. So trying to talk her out of what she'd already made up her mind to do would be futile. Still, he couldn't help worrying about her. Not even because he completely disagreed with her. No. It was far worse. He worried because he saw her point.

He hadn't lied to her before. He hadn't gotten enough of a glimpse of Darth Vader to know whether or not Ahsoka was right in her assessment of him. But what little glimpse he had seen was achingly familiar. The dry sarcasm, the way he and Ahsoka went back and forth with each other, the propensity for cruel words when he was angry. Still, Obi-wan couldn't ignore the strong currents of the dark side in him, the way Vader, without second thought or remorse, cut down children with little choice in having being brought there. Maybe he was right and there had been no other options. But all Obi-wan saw was Darth Vader on a loop in his head killing the younglings in the Jedi temple with no remorse.

Obi-wan sighed. That was not a path he was going down today. It wasn't the way of the Jedi to brood on the mistakes and horrors of the past. He could only focus on what they could do now to affect a better future. And whether he could accept it or not, Darth Vader seemed to be the path forward.

He briefly wondered how long Ahsoka meant when she left him in her quarters at Alderaan's Palace and said she'd be right back. It had already been twenty minutes.

Just as he was contemplating some light meditation, she poked her head in the room. "Obi-wan?"

When he looked at her, she started into the room and said, "There are two people I'd like you to meet."

Then she ushered two children ahead of her. A girl with brown hair and dark brown eyes, and a boy with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. Obi-wan's heart stopped, his breath catching in his throat.

"Sorry it took so long," Ahsoka said as she closed the door behind her, trepidation clear in her voice. "They were in the middle of tutoring. And Breha would have had a long talking to with me about encouraging them when we already have problems with them ditching their tutors."

"Aunt Breha is exaggerating, Mama. We've only skipped tutoring twice this year," the girl corrected.

"I'm pretty sure this is the sixth time," Ahsoka replied.

"No. It's only been twice this school year," the girl continued.

"We're only a month into the new school year. At this rate, you'll have skipped twelve times by the time you're halfway through the Alderaan school year," Ahsoka said, giving the girl a firm look. "We're not arguing about this anymore. If you and your brother skip your tutoring again, I'll stop your shooting lessons for a month."

The girl huffed, and the boy, her brother, rolled his eyes and shook his head. Ahsoka noticed.

"Don't think I don't know that most of the time, it's your idea," Ahsoka said to him. "You're just smart enough not to argue about it."

The boy tried to look suitably bashful, but the corners of his mouth twitched before he gave up and just grinned.

Before Ahsoka could say anything to that, the girl cleverly deflected attention away from her and her brother's mischief and asked, "Who's he?"

"Luke, Leia, this is—"

"That's General Kenobi!" Luke exclaimed. "You were a Jedi. You were Mama's grandmaster when she was a Jedi. Are you a Jedi still?"

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes. "How did you know that?"

Luke's eyes widened, and next to him, Leia smirked in smug satisfaction.

"Go ahead, Luke. Tell her how you hacked into Artoo's mainframe and managed to override the block on older recordings," Leia sang.

Luke cut Leia a firm look at her betrayal.

"You did what? Luke. They're blocked for a reason. And if you messed up, you could have totally wiped Artoo's memory."

"But I didn't," Luke said and hurriedly turned his attention back to Obi-wan. "Artoo did show me a picture of you, though. It was with Dad and Mama when you all fought in the Clone War together. You were younger, but it's still you."

"You're going to tell me exactly how you overrode the encryption block on Artoo's memory so I can tell your dad and he can restore it in a way that you can't get past it again," Ahsoka chided with a longsuffering sigh that was belied by the way she smiled afterward. Then she said, "Anyway, Obi-wan, this is Luke and Leia. Luke, Leia, you two apparently already know who this is. But General Kenobi was much more than someone your father and I fought in the Clone War with. He was a good friend of ours." Then Ahsoka looked directly at Obi-wan and said softly. "And he was a good friend of your first mother, Padmé."

Obi-wan didn't need the confirmation from Ahsoka to know exactly who the two children were. Leia looked too much like her mother. And Luke looked too much like his father. And they both had too much of the shining spark of fun and mischief that could commonly be seen in their father's eyes. A spark that had slowly but surely diminished and eventually disappeared as the Clone War dragged on. Still, Ahsoka's words only cemented in the Force what he already knew.

Luke and Leia exchanged a look with each other and then looked up at Ahsoka—their mother. There was obviously a very brief exchange before Ahsoka grinned and said, "You can talk to Obi-wan about anything. There's nothing you have to hide from him."

"Nothing? Even…" Leia trailed off.

"Even about your dad," Ahsoka finished.

Luke grinned and made his way over, offering his hand to Obi-wan and saying, "Hi. I'm Luke Skywalker. Nice to meet you."

Obi-wan took the boy's hand in his, taking a few moments to find words before saying, "I'm Obi-wan Kenobi. It's an honor to meet you, Luke."

Leia was both less impressed and less trusting than her brother. Though she approached Obi-Wan too, she didn't extend her hand as she said, "Leia Skywalker. In private. In public, we go by Organa. Will you be here long?"

"Just a few days. I have an important mission that needs seeing to."

"Like the ones you went on during the Clone War?" Luke asked. "Will you tell me about them? The ones you went on when Mom wasn't there. And can you tell me more about the Jedi. Mom said I can't decide if I want to be a Jedi until I learn more about them and their code. And… I guess that makes sense."

"I'll tell you both whatever you like," Obi-wan answered. Luke beamed, and even Leia couldn't hide her curiosity. They both began to climb on the bed but paused, groaning.

"We still have lessons," Luke sighed.

"Too bad we've already skipped so much tutoring, and it's only been one month into the school year," Leia said dramatically.

Obi-wan covered his mouth with his hand as he glanced at an outdone Ahsoka who was looking at her two children with her arms crossed. She walked over to them and poked them both in the head, saying something in her native tongue that caused both children to giggle. Then she said, "I suppose this would count as…supplemental tutoring. What better way to learn history than from a relic of it?"

Obi-wan frowned and sent Ahsoka a wry look that Ahsoka only returned with a smile. Any sympathy he had for her dealing with the two children was erased. Clearly, their biological parents weren't the only ones Luke and Leia gained their wit from.

"I'm going to take care of some things," Ahsoka said, kissing both twins on the forehead. "I'm leaving you in Obi-wan's hands. Behave."

Ahsoka left the room, and the twins climbed on the bed, tucking their legs under themselves. Luke began asking questions first, and it seemed that Obi-wan's answers only gave him more questions to ask. Leia seemed fine with this arrangement until Luke asked why he hadn't done something, and Obi-wan replied that it wasn't the Jedi way.

With the pretentiousness of a child who had just learned a new way to phrase something, she asked, "Mind elucidating on that matter?"

For whatever reason, Luke snickered. Leia looked at him out of the corner of her eye and smiled before turning back to look seriously at Obi-wan. An inside joke then.

"What matter?" Obi-wan asked.

"The Jedi. If that's not the Jedi way, what is?" Leia elaborated.

Obi-wan paused. The Jedi way. He didn't recall anyone ever asking that question before. There was no need to ask. When raised in the Temple, it was so abundantly clear what the Jedi way was that he'd never thought to ask it.

"The Jedi way," Obi-wan finally said, "is using the power that the Force grants people like us to help those who need it and spread peace and good into the galaxy."

Leia looked at Luke, uncertain. Luke shrugged and nodded his head to Obi-wan.

"Mama told us that one of the reasons she's not a Jedi anymore is because the Order wouldn't have let her be our mother and a Jedi at the same time." Leia frowned. "I don't get it, though. If that's what the Jedi are about, what is it about our mother that they wouldn't let her be a Jedi? She helps a lot of people now."

Of course, like their father, they would ask the hard questions. Taking little at face value.

"In order to have nothing that would prevent us from going wherever we need to go to help people in need whenever they needed it, we aren't allowed to have attachments. Anything that could keep us from serving others or make us harm others to protect our attachments using our incredible power," he explained. It was the simplest way he could think of without getting into philosophizing about the nature of the force and the light and dark side.

Leia scrunched up her nose at that. "Still doesn't make sense. Aunt Breha has a lot of power as the queen of Alderaan, and she always has to put her people first. But she can still be Winter's mama. Sounds like the Jedi are afraid of something that everyone else isn't worried about."

Luke sighed. "She's not trying to be mean. It's just…Talking about the Jedi makes Mama sad, even though she says it doesn't."

Obi-wan wasn't sure how their conversation took such a turn. But it was apparent Luke and Leia weren't allowed to talk about certain things often in Ahsoka's attempts to keep them safe. He wouldn't shy away from the hard topics now when she'd given them the okay to talk about anything with him.

"Ahsoka's not sad because the Jedi made her choose between you and the Order. I'm very sure your mother would choose you all again and again and never regret it. She chooses you every day. She's sad when she thinks about the Order because…" Obi-wan trailed off. "Because the Jedi way is to help people and spread as much good in the galaxy as possible. But during the war, we forgot that we also had a duty to help the people that made up our Order."

Because for all that they had been taught to spurn attachments, they had been too attached to their Order. Too attached to their traditions. Too attached to their position and proximity to the Republic and the Senate. Too afraid to do the right thing to protect one of their own until they could investigate and get to the truth of the matter.

"We put our attachment to our Order first," he continued. "And in doing that, we betrayed your mother's trust in us."

Luke and Leia looked at him contemplatively, reminding Obi-wan of their father when he was around their age.

Finally, Luke said, "Sounds like the Order could have used some help too then."

"Yes," Obi-wan said with a sigh. "We could have."

The question was, would they have accepted it? Would they have heard it? The Force gave him the answer without bidding. No. They wouldn't have. There were many times they'd been rightfully criticized and called out, knights falling to the dark side, and they'd ignored it.

"Let's… talk about something happier," Luke suggested.

"Great idea, young one. How about the two of you tell me about you're up to now?" Obi-wan asked. "What are you studying?"

"Mama's been teaching me how to use a blaster."

"And I'm learning how to pilot."

"We're going to be like Black Krayt and Pearl," Leia said proudly.

"Who are Black Krayt and Pearl?"

That prompted Luke and Leia to launch into great detail about one of their favorite holo programs. By the time Ahsoka returned, it was dinner time. At which point, Luke loudly exclaimed, "Good. I'm starving."

"You're always starving," Leia pointed out as the two left the room to find their dinner.

"I hope they didn't drive you insane, " Ahsoka said when they were gone. "They can be a bit of a handful sometimes."

"Ahsoka, I wouldn't have it any other way," Obi-wan says. "Besides. You forget. I raised their father. I'm used to Skywalker antics."

Ahsoka smiled a little, and afterward, silence settled between them. A silence Obi-wan sensed Ahsoka wanted to break but was afraid to.

"I don't hate you, if that's what you're wondering," Obi-wan said, saving her the trouble.

"But you should," Ahsoka blurted out. "Force knows, you should. I lied to you on Tatooine. Well…not lied, but I let you think they died with Padmé. And I shouldn't have done that. But I was just…I don't know."

"You were a young mother dealing with her own hurt and not wanting her younglings to know the same hurt," Obi-wan said understandingly. Wouldn't he take back all the hurts that the galaxy had ever dished out to Anakin and Ahsoka if he could have?

"I mean… Yes. But still," Ahsoka muttered. "I should have told you about them months ago when I told you about everything else. I—"

"Ahsoka. All this time, I thought I'd failed Anakin utterly and completely. Not only did I not see what Palpatine had done until it was too late, not only did I not notice how badly he was struggling, but I also didn't act in time to save Padmé."

"We both got caught up on Mustafar," Ahsoka said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"No. Before that. I shouldn't have used her to find him at all. I should have convinced her of the danger she was in and sent her into hiding."

Ahsoka snorted. "As if Padmé would have listened."

Obi-wan smiled at that. "But when she told me you'd gone to find him, I was so blinded by my fear for what you might be getting yourself into, of what Anakin might do next if I didn't stop him…my decision making was compromised. You did what I failed to. You got her to safety long enough to save her children, so they weren't additional victims in this entire debacle. And for that, I thank you."

Ahsoka gave him a sad smile and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Obi-wan. Take it from someone who's done her fair share of blaming herself. We can't worry about the mistakes of the past. We were all used as unwitting pawns of the dark side. And what's to say that anything we did differently wouldn't have led us to this point anyway. Or worse," Ahsoka said sagely. "We can only learn from our mistakes and avoid making them in the future. Maybe you did fail us. But you did the best you could under the worst of circumstances. We all failed."

For someone who no longer proclaimed to be a Jedi, Ahsoka indeed spoke and acted like a true Jedi would. His heart swelled with pride, and he was reminded of the words Anakin all but shouted at the Council as he argued her case after her trial.

"_She's going to grow up and be better than all of us. And you almost lost her over stupid politics and technicalities instead of doing what was right!"_

Obi-wan smiled. He'd certainly been right about that. She was better than all of them. "Technicalities" like being a mother aside. Speaking of that…

"So you're a mother now," Obi-wan stated. He'd taken the fact for what it was when he found out earlier, too in awe that Anakin's and Padmé's child—children—had lived. Now though. Now… "That's going to take some getting used to. I never would have seen you as the type, even though you got along fairly well with the younglings at the temple. To think. It seems only yesterday you were a snippy little teenager."

"Rex told me the same thing after he found out. And technically, I still was a snippy little teenager when the twins were born," Ahsoka said with a shrug. "By the way…Most people think I'm their first mother. Their birth mother that is. Even Rex asked me. I know you know that's not true, but if anyone asks, well…don't correct the assumption. If word got out that Padmé's children were alive, the Emperor would instantly know and come after them. But if—When. When word gets out that I'm alive, if they're Ahsoka Tano's biological children, then their father could be any human male as far as most of the galaxy is concerned. Even the Emperor would have to do some investigating first, even if he thought me and Anakin had something back then."

"It wouldn't be a hard story to sell. Lord knows the media had some fascinating stories to tell about your…How do I put this delicately? Your personal life."

Ahsoka's lekku flushed, and Obi-wan distinctly remembered the woman's discovery of such salacious rumors when she was a padawan. Torrent Company had mercilessly used it to get a good laugh until Anakin came to her rescue and shut down the discussion.

"Come now. Let's find dinner, " Obi-wan said, heading out into the hallway.

"Wait. Obi-wan," Ahsoka called, and Obi-wan turned back to the young woman.

"Yes, Ah—" Obi-wan was taken aback as Ahsoka quickly closed the distance between them and hugged him.

"I missed you, Obi-wan," she admitted. "And I'm glad you're here. I don't think I've told you that yet."

He stood awkwardly for a moment before sighing and returning the embrace.

"I missed you too, young one. I'm glad to be here, and I promise I won't leave you by yourself again."

**End Part Five**

* * *

**AN: **Patience is a virtue, my readers. I told you everything would be fine between Ahsoka and Obi-wan (or at least implied it). And Obi-wan finally met Luke and Leia. They just needed some time. Ahsoka needed time in particular because Obi-wan represents something that hurt her and that she's tried her best to distance herself from. The Jedi. She goes through a similar arc as she does in Season 7 where she's lost and has to be reminded what being a Jedi is and make peace with that. And she couldn't make peace with that when in her head with Obi-wan around when he represented the Jedi as they were to her. She needed the distance she never got in this universe from not leaving the order.

Anywho, I hoped you enjoyed. Keep the kudos, comments, and subscriptions coming. I appreciate it!


	50. Part Six: Chapter Fifty: Defiance

**Part Six  
****Chapter Fifty: Defiance**

Vader could feel the indignation and rage of Naboo's queen, Améla, through the holo receiver as his master revealed that she and her planet would be bestowed with the great honor of hosting the main celebrations to commemorate nine years of the Empire.

It was an open secret in the galaxy that the Emperor's home planet held no love for him or his Empire. And they showed it in the most subtle yet overt show of defiance that they could: superseding Empire Day with the five-day memorial holiday dedicated to the former queen who had died during the fallout, choosing to use the standard year to keep track of the time that passed for the occasion rather than the Naboo calendar year as tradition mandated. Two days celebrating his dead wife's life—two days that happened to coincide with Empire day. Then the day of mourning on that day of her death. And lastly, two days to celebrate the legacy she'd left behind. The Naboo were clever like that, using their normal traditions of grieving to avoid having to acknowledge the Empire and the Emperor.

Nine, however, was a significant number in Naboo tradition. As such, it was a significant number to Palpatine as well. And what would be more poetic, a better show of strength, than to celebrate nine years of their "glorious" Empire on the planet that "nurtured" him?

Queen Améla had become so incensed, her face glowed with the flush of her anger even through her white face paint. Her fury was only outmatched by Vader's own as he fumed at being made to participate in the entire week of festivities while at the Emperor's side. Forcing him to be there on Empire Day at all was enough to torture Vader. But to be present while he purposely defiled and stomped all over the memory of Padmé in death was an emotional and psychological torture that Palpatine wanted to inflict tenfold. Another one of his tests of loyalty to make sure nothing of Anakin Skywalker remained, and if anything did remain, to force Vader to kill and bury the remains deeper within the depths of the dark side.

Vader resisted the urge to growl as Palpatine informed both him and Naboo's queen of his vision for the weeklong celebrations. His patience for his master grew thinner and thinner every day. Having to spend time with the man and pretend he was loyal tested his patience more.

In due time though. He was due a report from Obi-wan about his findings on Contingency. Then there was a briefing with the Joint Chiefs on the Death Star, the progression of which was starting to concern Vader. There was only so long he could continue to sabotage the project without falling under suspicion. Maybe he would employ the help of that terrorist rebellion to attack it. It would serve the dual purpose of delaying the Death Star and turning Palpatine's eyes from—

Vader stopped the thought before it could form. Even behind the shields and trappings he'd set up in his mind and a healthy amount of rage at the task the Emperor was forcing on him, there were thoughts he couldn't let surface around the Emperor.

He didn't bother trying to hide his relief when he was dismissed, the reaction serving more to encourage his master's sadistic glee than his anger at his perceived insolence.

Vader hated meditating, but spending any time with the Emperor always left him with the need to bring his thoughts and emotions under control so he wouldn't talk himself into doing anything stupid. The best way to do that was to be as far away from the Emperor as possible. Though Vader had his own wing in the palace, built on the ruins of the Jedi Temple, he spent as little time there as possible, spending most of his time when he was forced to Imperial Center on his flagship.

It was on his way to the hanger to his shuttle that his comm began to beep. He didn't recognize the code, but there was only one person who contacted him and whose code pinged differently on his comm every time. He answered the call without activating the holo transmitter and then sent the caller to hold until he made it to his shuttle. Another reason he spent little time in his quarters in the palace: there was no way to ensure the Emperor wasn't watching him there.

He ran a quick check for listening devices and waited until he was out of the palace hanger to hook the comm to the communications system of the ship and activate the holoreceiver. When he took the comm off hold, Diya's image appeared with her clone trooper captain flanking her right side, not that his appearance gave that fact away. The trooper wasn't dressed in the armor of the Empire and for good reason. Instead, he was wrapped head to toe in brown and beige cloth, his blaster strapped in from of him, and some type of heavily tinted visor covered his eyes.

The girl was standing with her feet spread and hands behind her back, looking neutral. But something about the set of her burgundy lips gave away her anticipation about something. Ahsoka had a similar tell. One day, Vader mused to himself, he'd have to ask Ahsoka if she ever considered whether Diya might be a half-sister of hers and not a distant cousin.

"What?" he asked curtly.

"You got some time. It's something big."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"I'd call being able to take Hutt Space and a good chunk of the Outer Rim with it in one fell swoop a good thing."

Vader made a noise of agreement and said, "That would be a good thing. If you could pull off such a feat."

"I can't. This kind of operation would be even beyond me. That's why I'm calling you." Diya paused. "I think we need to bring Ahsoka in."

Vader bit back a comment on how it seemed she'd finally gained some intelligence as she now had the discernment to know when she was getting in way over her head.

"Brief me, and I will determine that."

"It's no secret that slavery was alive and thriving during the Republic and the Empire just legalized what was already happening. In my observations of Hutt Space over the past few years, while that's made it harder for the Liberty Resistance since the Empire actually helps the Hutts in their enforcement of slavery and persecuting liberty fighters, it's also been, ironically, a boon for the resistance. During the Republic, slaves were expensive and had to be carefully smuggled through hyperspace and to slave planets. Now, slaves are still expensive, but much easier to access because it's all legal now."

"And that means?" Vader asked.

"It means," Diya said with a pointed look, "that masters, particularly the rich ones, have been getting careless. More beatings, more abuse, more killings because it's so easy to get their hands on another slave. The only safe way to survive slavery nowadays is to become a favorite, and even that's no guarantee. The people are desperate. They're ready and willing to totally revolt and fight back. It might mean dying, but at least they might get their freedom out of it. The problem is that Jabba is powerful. The chaos of the Empire's rise allowed him to consolidate a lot of power in Hutt space and other parts of the Outer Rim. He's got skilled mercenaries, a bunch of weapons, and if he gets truly desperate, he can call on the Empire. The guerilla tactics we've been using won't work to ultimately stop him. When we go after him, it's going to have to be an all-out assault. The good thing is, most of Jabba's dealings are on Tatooine. If we can take him out there, me and the resistance have agents in place to deal with his people on other worlds and in other crime syndicates. It will be the opportunity the people need to rise up against their masters. We just need a little boost."

"I'm guessing this is where Ahsoka comes in?"

"Yes… The only thing is that it would definitely draw the Emperor's attention to the rebellion. Hutt space not being Hutt space anymore is bound to concern him about another rising power in the galaxy," Diya deadpanned. "But you said you had a promise to keep. And there's going to be no more perfect opportunity to keep it than now if we can find a way to manage it."

Vader landed in the flagship of his destroyer, the gears already turning in his head. "I'm conferencing Ahsoka in."

"I'm pretty sure it's the middle of the night where she's at."

"This cannot wait."

It took a few moments before Ahsoka finally replied, _"Stars, Vader. This better be good. I just got to sleep."_

"It's about our timeline. There's been a development that might necessitate speeding it up some," Vader said bluntly.

There was a pause on the other end of the line before Ahsoka said, _"Give me a couple of seconds."_

A few seconds later, Ahsoka's image flickered to life. She was sitting up against the headboard of her bed, managing to look like she hadn't just awoken out of her sleep and wasn't just wearing a sleep shirt, face set in that severe, determined way that meant she was ready to handle a matter.

"I'm adding you to my call with Diya," Vader said.

"_Diya,"_ Ahsoka repeated.

Once they were all on the call, Vader directed Diya to tell Ahsoka everything that she'd told him.

"So?" Diya asked when she was done. "What do you think?"

Ahsoka didn't say anything for a few moments. But Vader could already sense her working out the beginnings of a plan as she started mentally putting the people and pieces she would need in place. Diya was not as familiar with Ahsoka as he was, though, nor did she have the benefit of the kind of connection he had with Ahsoka in the Force.

"I know it's risky. And I know it's just a backwater planet that doesn't really have a lot of political clout and value or natural resources. But I think control of the hyperspace lanes that Jabba controls alone would make this mission worth its while. Those hyper lanes would give us access to most of the Outer Rim, and we might even be able to block off some important outposts to the—"

"Diya. I don't need to know the strategic value of taking Jabba's territory to be convinced of the merit of this mission. It's enough that people need help, and we may be in the position to give it," Ahsoka said, cutting the girl off. "Give me and Vader a minute to strategize. We'll call you back."

Vader cut Diya's line, and her image flickered out.

"So, this is the project you stole my lieutenant for?" Ahsoka asked.

"I didn't steal her. I just gave her an additional task that intersected with her regular duties," Vader corrected.

Ahsoka gave him a contemplative stare for a few moments before saying, "I would have helped." She didn't sound hurt or disappointed. But Vader did get the sense that she wondered why he'd left her out. "We had agreed to go free slaves after the Clone War anyway."

The "we" she referred to were two different people back then. Both naïve Jedi that hadn't yet lost all faith in the Order they served, stupidly thinking that said Order would have allowed them to make good on such an audacious declaration.

Ahsoka had stopped making the distinction between his self from his former life and his self afterward for a while now, though. Vader gave up correcting her shortly after that. He had a long list of things he needed to change her mind about, and in the grand scheme of things, the distinction that he tried to maintain between his two lives mattered little. If at all.

So Vader simply replied, "Yes. We did."

Ahsoka raised an expectant eye marking at him, shifting the covers of her bed slightly and drawing Vader's attention to the now exposed red-orange flesh of one of her legs. His gaze followed the swath of flesh up to her thigh until it disappeared beneath her sleep shirt. He forced himself to raise his gaze back up to her face, only to pause once more at the flesh of her upper arm, shoulder, and collar, exposed by the off shoulders of her shirt. He mentally cursed himself for his momentary weakness as he was finally able to force his gaze back to her face. Something came across their bond signaling that she'd noticed.

Remembering that she was still waiting for him to elaborate, he managed, "This… This was something I needed to do myself at first. Besides, you have enough on your plate to deal with as it is."

She shrugged her exposed shoulder and remarked, "I'm never too busy to make time for you, Vader."

She'd put no quantifier on her words, and eager to give himself the advantage and control over the situation, Vader asked, "Never?"

To punctuate the question, he carefully exposed himself to where he knew their bond to be and sent across a wave of the turbulent emotions she'd manage to stir in him toward her. Possession. Control. Dominance. Lust.

He watched her tense as she picked up the emotions. Then she averted her gaze down to her lap, a pretty flush having overtaken her.

"Never," she said. Then she continued right on, changing the subject in the process. Vader decided to let her. They did have a more pertinent issue at hand.

"You were right. This is going to move up our timeline. Significantly."

"That's true, but we haven't had the luxury of time on our hands for a while," Vader said. Ahsoka didn't disagree with him. "The longer we wait, not only do we run the risk of the Death Star being fully operational, but also the more time the Emperor has to put all the pieces of Contingency into place. If you could raise a functioning rebellion in a little less than seven years, then he can have all the pieces to Contingency in place within the next four or five. That's without the fact that in three more years, the size of the Imperial fleet will have grown by fifty percent based on the orders the Empire has put in for more ships. The longer we wait to make a move, the stronger he'll get. And what will it matter if we can take his Empire from him when he'll have grown a shadow one trying to undermine us?"

"I've got the people ready to go," Ahsoka said. There was no cockiness or smugness about it. It was merely a matter of fact. "What I need are more warships. I'm under no illusion that if we go down this path, it won't lead straight to war with the Empire. And the ones I've got and that some planets have donated wouldn't be enough to maintain a long enough resistance for you to gain control of the fleet."

"You'll have your warships," Vader assured her. "What we need is to make sure you have a plan."

"I think Diya pretty much outlined it. We attack Jabba head-on. By the time the Empire gets there, it'll be too late. He'll be defeated, and we'll have control of the hyperspace lanes and a good part of Hutt Space."

"We could do it that way," Vader agreed. "Or… we could do something even more dramatic."

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking about how the Emperor just declared that the Empire Day festivities will be held on Naboo this year. How humiliating would it be if the rebellion not only took part of Hutt Space and the hyperspace lanes that give access to a good bulk of the Outer Rim but also if, in the process, the rebellion managed to seize the Emperor's home planet from under his control while he was planet-side?"

The dark side swirled and whispered gleefully at the prospect of getting revenge, though limited, on his master. This was the humiliation his master deserved for daring to violate and tarnish Padmé's name.

"That's kind of an ambitious thing to plan in only three months," Ahsoka stated with a straight face. Her excitement in the Force, however, betrayed her.

"It is," Vader admitted. "But it will be the perfect timing. On Empire Day, to maintain the illusion of strength and security, much of the fleet will be docked or stationed at the shipyards while most of the officers are sent home for the holiday. It'll be a skeleton crew even on Naboo. Palpatine will be too drunk on the high of his power that he'll never see it coming. He'll even override my insistence on tighter security measures or canceling the celebrations at all, dismissing it as nothing more than my paranoia."

"That's devious, even for you," Ahsoka pointed out.

"Ahsoka," Vader said, for once not trying to bring the dark side to heel, "you have no idea how painful the wait to get this kind of revenge—even covertly—on Palpatine has been."

* * *

1) Fifty chapters! What?

2) My favorite part about writing this story is probably how Vader and Ahsoka keep creating these boundaries with each other, one (or both) of them push at the boundary a little until the boundary is further out than it was before while all the while claiming they're ignoring everything. That's why I caution that both Vader and Ahsoka can be unreliable narrators when it comes to what they feel for each other, which is why the interludes are so important because they give us the outside looking in perspective.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed! Review please! I appreciate it!


	51. Content

**Chapter Fifty-One: Content**

Ahsoka sat in silence, giving Bail and Mon time to process the plan to take Hutt Space, much of the Outer Rim, and even Naboo. It was a lot to take in and a lot more ambitious than a supply run or going from planet to planet secretly training soldiers and teaching them Guerilla warfare. It was even more ambitious than sending out agents to hunt down Jedi, inquisitors, and dark side adepts. Those things were dangerous but could all be chalked up to a single actor or a small group of people. This was completely exposing the Rebellion. There would be no turning back.

Finally, Mon said, "Are we sure this is the stance we want to take? Is this worth exposing ourselves and giving up any traction we might make elsewhere?"

"If by that you mean abandoning any hope that this conflict can end peacefully, there wasn't hope for that to begin with," Ahsoka said. "The Clone War was proof enough that Palpatine refuses to be reasoned with, especially not in any way that means conceding his power."

Mon sighed. "We trust you, Ahsoka. You've gotten us this far undetected, but I just can't help wondering the precedent we would be setting by doing this. Attacking a sovereignty who's committed no offense to the Republic."

"Officially, maybe," Bail muttered.

"You understand what I'm saying," Mon said firmly. "I agree that something needs to be done about slavery and the Hutts. But what I'm asking is if we want our first foray into the public eye to be such a gross violation of sovereignty against someone who hasn't openly offended us, not like the Empire has."

"If sovereignty were our primary concern, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. Our purpose is to help people first. Sometimes doing that means breaking the law or violating sovereignty when both are wrong. I want people to know that we're a better alternative to the Empire or even the Republic because we put them and their needs first. If it means violating a few customary galactic laws, you won't find me apologizing for it or worrying about it. Maybe it's time to make new customs. Set a new precedent," Ahsoka said with a shrug.

Bail narrowed his eyes. "You've already made up your mind to do this. Haven't you?"

"Yes," Ahsoka admitted. "Don't get me wrong. I value your insights. But there's only so much insight you all can give me from the Senate that will help me out here on the front lines where the rules are different because the Empire has no pretense of them. I know it's dangerous. But if we wait any longer, the Empire will just become more powerful, our losses will be greater, and the next generation will definitely inherit this fight."

"Is that what the Force tells you?" Mon asked.

"It's not telling me I'm wrong," Ahsoka replied vaguely.

The Force was actually unsettlingly quiet. This had only happened a few times. Once when she had to choose between leaving the Order or staying after the Temple bombing and another right before Anakin turned to the dark side and became Darth Vader. The last time had been when Ahsoka proposed a truce with Vader to defeat his master. Ahsoka had learned during those moments that the best thing to do in those situations was what felt right.

"What do you need us to do?" Mon asked.

"I need you to get your affairs in order. When I make this move, we'll have the Emperor's undivided attention. There's a list of senators under suspicion for having Rebellion ties from their intelligence department, and it's startlingly accurate. I'll send you the list so you can quietly make contact with them. Tell them to prepare themselves and their staff's not to go back to Imperial Center. For the ones who will be on Naboo during the Empire Day celebrations, tell them to be ready to leave Naboo in a hurry," Ahsoka warned. "By the end of this operation, I'm hoping to have Naboo from under Imperial control. But I'm still coordinating evacs with my agents for you just to prepare for the worst."

"How do you sound both like your former master and grandmaster at the same time?" Bail asked fondly.

Ahsoka grinned, purposefully flashing a sharp canine in the process. "It runs in our lineage."

Bail shaking his head and Mon giving a longsuffering sigh was the last image Ahsoka saw before she cut the call.

Ahsoka then glanced over her shoulder and said, "You can come out now."

Sans suit, Vader stepped into the conference area from the cockpit, where Ahsoka had banished him while she contacted Mon and Bail.

They had mostly been coordinating their Empire Day revolt remotely, conferencing in their agents when needed. But a week ago, Vader insisted that they needed to rendezvous for what he called an observational expedition. It was incredibly vague, but Ahsoka hadn't been able to pry any details from him. The only thing she seemed to get from him was a subdued sense of excitement and feeling very pleased with himself. Ahsoka didn't know what to make of that. All she knew for sure was that he'd convinced the Emperor that he was going off the grid in an attempt to uncover an assassination plot, the first of many ghosts Vader was chasing to convince the Emperor of his paranoia and to further let his guard down on Empire day.

As he stood across from her, he grunted. "Ugh. Senators. Still prone to over debating while doing absolutely nothing."

"Bail and Mon have valid concerns about this operation. Not everyone so easily runs into battle and risky situations like we do," Ahsoka argued.

"Still. If they spent half as much time actually doing something instead of worrying over insubstantial concerns and self-interests, maybe they could have gotten something done during the Republic."

"I understand your sentiment. Truly. But sometimes that kind of deliberation is needed. And even when it's not, sometimes I have to humor them."

"Right," Vader said, tone condescending.

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at him and asked slowly, "Vader… You do know it's going to be impossible for you to effectively rule and control thousands of systems without the Senate? Right?"

"That's what the governors are for."

"The governors are enforcers. Bad ones at that. Not lawmakers."

"What's the difference?"

Ahsoka considered Vader for a moment. Then, before she could think better of it, she said, "Vader, sometimes your ineptness about certain matters absolutely astounds me."

His Force signature flared in anger at her statement. But he reeled it back in, tilting his head at her with his arms crossed as he asked, "Well, if you know so much, why don't you explain? Why is keeping the Senate intact so important?"

"Fine," Ahsoka said, accepting the challenge as she turned on the holoprojector beneath them and activated one of the strategy war games that Luke and Leia liked to play. The goal was to get the most soldiers to the safe zone on the opposite side of the board. The terrains randomized every time the game was reloaded, but the game Luke and Leia had abandoned the last time they were on this ship would help.

"Say this board represents the Senate," Ahsoka suggested. "Each terrain represents a different system. Now, here's the jungle terrain and the mountain terrain. You wouldn't use the same strategy and equipment that you used for the jungle in the mountains, right?"

"Of course not. This is child's play Ahsoka. How does this—?"

Ahsoka gave him an exasperated look to which Vader rolled his eyes but gestured for her to continue.

"And even supposing both terrains were mountainous, you wouldn't use the same strategy on mountain terrain like on Alderaan for the one on Mustafar, right?"

"No stang," Vader said. "Assuming anyone was crazy enough to lead a team through the kind of volatile mountain terrain on Mustafar." Before Ahsoka could comment, Vader held up his hand and said, "I know. Lava duel. Volcano fortress. You've got to come up with more original points."

"I will when you do something more reckless than that."

"It's been what? Almost nine years?" Vader said contemplatively. "I'm losing my touch."

"Don't get any ideas," Ahsoka warned. "Anyway, so if you know you can't treat two mountainous terrains the same, and you had no intel about the terrain, what would you do to find out to make the best decisions about planning an expedition on that terrain?"

"Do some research, talk to someone who knew the terrain. Preferably someone that's already been through the territory. But if it's uncharted, send scouts for a preliminary assessment. Talk to some locals."

"Exactly," Ahsoka said patronizingly, earning a glower from Vader. She made sure he sensed her amusement. "Now, maybe one person could coordinate missions effectively and make general guidelines if they were dealing with a dozen of these terrains. But even then, they'd have to tweak each individual one. Think, what if you had to coordinate thousands of these missions at the same time?"

"One person couldn't. They can oversee it all, maybe, but not take care of every minute detail. It's asking to fail every time. Even as much of a control freak as I am—"

Ahsoka feigned a shocked gasp as she interjected, "Wow. You admit to it?"

Vader frowned at her but continued. "I know I can't be everywhere at once. I have to trust that my subordinates, particularly the captains and commanders in charge of each mission, are competent. And if they're not, find someone who—Oh."

Vader's eyes widened comically as Ahsoka's point dawned on him.

"Well, would you look at that? You didn't even need me to spell it all the way out for you. You might make a competent emperor yet, my lord."

Vader scoffed. "I'm not incapable of comprehending politics. I just don't like the petty squabbling and needless bureaucracy involved."

"Neither do I. That admittedly is one of the cancers of democracy when it gets out of control. But I can understand it's necessity for some things. Some things."

"When did you get so good at this stuff?"

"Unlike you, I paid attention when Padmé talked about politics," Ahsoka joked, poking Vader in the chest.

Vader outright laughed at that, and an image of her as a teen sitting in Padmé's apartment during a meeting with some loyalists surfaced between them. In the image, a memory Ahsoka realized, she had her head leaned in her hand and was clearly starting to doze off in boredom.

"Fine. Maybe not always," Ahsoka admitted, unable to keep herself from laughing some at the memory. "But seriously. The rebellion's a lot bigger than it was when I first took over. If I didn't make peace with some of this, I would have created a lot more problems for myself and, in addition to the chronic headaches, probably lost my sanity. You know. The sanity I have left after suffering through your shenanigans."

She'd said it teasingly and expected him to glare at her again. Maybe even playfully nudge her across their bond in mock indignation. What Ahsoka hadn't expected was his odd considering stare. It didn't necessarily mean anything wrong, but it always meant Vader was possibly about to get up to something. Ahsoka usually wasn't a fan of the ideas that resulted because of that considering look.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," Vader answered a little too quickly for Ahsoka's liking as they both felt the lurch of the ship that signaled they were out of hyperspace. "Good. We're here."

"I'm not going to forget about this," Ahsoka warned as she settled into the co-pilot chair next to him. "Where's here?"

"It's a surprise," Vader said as he guided them into the cloudy atmosphere of the planet.

"Coming from you, that does little to comfort me," Ahsoka replied but said nothing as they landed in the hanger of what appeared to be some kind of large factory. At least not until Vader stood, grabbed a long black cloak, and gestured for her to follow him. "Are you sure this planet is out of the way enough for you to be walking around without your suit?"

"Know how many adepts Sidious have who are tall and wear a black cloak?" he asked bluntly.

For Vader to be so confident that his paranoia wasn't coming through meant he'd exhausted all means of it and was satisfied with the security. Wherever this was, she'd trust him for now.

Ahsoka followed him out of the ship. No one was there to greet them, but she saw beings milling around the center and hanger they'd landed in, taking no particular notice of the newcomers. Ahsoka wondered if they'd been instructed not to or if Vader had wrapped the shadows of the dark side around them to prevent them from being noticed. They walked through the hanger, walking through a series of metal halls in silence, unnoticed by the employees running about until they got to what Ahsoka assumed was the other side of the facility. An observation deck ran across the whole back wall of the room, overlooking the planet.

"Okay, Vader," Ahsoka said when he stopped just past the threshold of the area. "Are you going to tell me what we're doing here now?"

"Go see for yourself," he said, nodding toward the observation windows.

Ahsoka sent him a wry look but crossed the room toward the deck. Once she was right in front of it, she realized the deck did more than just give way to a beautiful view of the planet but also served a view into a massive shipyard. On the ground, stretched kilometers in front of her, were warships. They were smaller than the Imperial Class Destroyers that Ahsoka was familiar with, bearing the curves and roundness that were a hallmark of Alderaanian or Naboo ships but without the delicacy.

"Like it?" Vader asked, coming up behind her.

"What is this?"

"You said you had the people but needed the warships. Certainly not as extensive as the Empire's fleet, but it'll get the job done and hold off the Empire's forces until I can gather most of them under my control."

Ahsoka's mouth fell open in surprise. "That's for the rebellion?"

"Yes. You didn't really think I was going to let you pick a fight with the emperor half-cocked, did you?"

"But how…When?"

"While it was a good start, it became apparent to me early on that you were going to need more ships and weaponry than my initial contact could give you. So I got a little creative in the last few years."

"Vader, how did you hide this from the Emperor? Wait. Backtrack. How did you pay for this? I know being the Emperor's top enforcer comes with a nice paycheck, but Palpatine definitely would have noticed this."

"Ahsoka, there are many Imperials who hated and still hate the idea of the Republic but are just as upset and dissatisfied with the emperor's rule. His rule was not what they had in mind when it came to a stronger central government," Vader explained. "There are many Senators, representatives, and even Moffs who want no part in a rebellion to restore the Republic but are all for funding a rebellion to reshape the Empire."

"How did you find all this out? How did you even manage to convince them?"

"Let's just say I owe Sabé a very long vacation after all this is over. Not that I think she would take it. She lives for uncovering this kind of stuff," Vader said, and Ahsoka agreed. "The Emperor has no need to look too closely into the affairs of those who are loyal to the Empire. But loyalty to the Empire does not mean loyalty to Palpatine. And they're willing to back that up with their funding."

Ahsoka looked back toward the observatory, still stunned. "Vader, this is…How did you manage this so fast?"

Vader shrugged. "What can I say? Everyone's afraid of a lightsaber."

Ahsoka didn't know why she expected anything else.

Vader directed her to follow him into the shipyard for a closer look while listing off the specifications of the ships. Though Ahsoka didn't care much about it for all that she was competent enough when it came to mechanics, she listened to him inflate his already larger than life ego. Clearly, he was pleased with himself. For all that Vader thrived in and craved battle, Ahsoka was sure he'd be just as content, if not more, in a hanger or junkyard surrounded by his machines for the rest of his life.

Vader abruptly stopped and turned to look at her, his brow furrowed in confusion. Belatedly, it occurred to her that he might have picked up on a stray thought.

"What?" he asked.

"What do you mean 'what'?"

"Your Force signature. It's humming."

"Humming?" Ahsoka asked.

"Maybe that's not the best word for how it's coming across the bond. It's more like…" Vader trailed off. Ahsoka gave him time to find the right words for it.

Finally, he said, "Like a gentle wave or a refreshing breeze?"

"How poetic of you."

He scowled at her. "It's hard to explain."

"Does it feel wrong?"

His frown deepened, and he avoided her gaze. "It's not unpleasant."

For a man who never had any problems telling her when she was irritating him, him saying that something wasn't unpleasant was the equivalent to saying he found it enjoyable. With that realization, Ahsoka couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze either when he looked back at her to ask, "So what does it mean?"

Force, she really, really hoped her lekku weren't betraying her discomfort for what she was about to admit.

"I guess," she finally said, pulling at her left arm with her right hand, "seeing you content in this kind of element just makes me happy is all. You're not like that very often."

The way he tilted his head and stared told Ahsoka he wasn't sure what to make of that statement, let alone what to do with it. So Ahsoka saved him, and her, the trouble.

"Come on. Give me the grand tour," she said, hooking an arm around his and gesturing for him to lead the way.

* * *

**AN:**1) First things first. It's been a while since I did an early update. Since May the Fourth weekend. A lot of you have been asking for another early update, and you've all been so kind and constructive in your comments. Your insights sometimes make me take a closer look at what I've written. So you'll be getting an early update Saturday morning sometime. And I have to say, you're both going to love and hate me for the next chapter.

2) In chapter twenty-six of Force Distortion (if you've read it), Vader references the scene when Ahsoka is showing him the importance of keeping the Senate intact when he says, "It wasn't until Ahsoka sat me down with one of those war-like strategy games the twins liked to play as children and used it for a visual aid and comparison purposes that I started to grasp [politics] a lot more than I used to." I didn't know when that opportunity would come up to write that scene in this story until I got to this part.

3) If you got S7, episode 9 vibes from this chapter when he presents her the ships, that's because it's supposed to give that feel. Just like Anakin wasn't letting her go into Mandalore without her lightsabers or a company of the 501st, Vader's not letting her take actions that will effectively start a civil war without being decently armed.

4) Also, in Sequel Trilogy era, the complementary materials to the movie tell us that there were senators and planets in the New Republic Senate that were secretly funding the First Order. Reading that fact made me remember that I'd read in some OT era research that there was a faction of people in the Senate and high-ranking military structure who liked the idea of the Empire but hated Palpatine's rule of it. Those people would never back the canon rebellion because they didn't want to go back to a republic and they never organized (to my knowledge) to get rid of Palpatine and reform the Empire. In this universe, Vader and Sabé have been working quietly behind the scenes to get the backing of that faction.

5) If you're interested in extra content come on over and visit me at p a treon . com (slash) ladydaewrites. I'm going to be doing live chats over there and answering questions.

Anywho, sorry for posting this a few hours later than normal. I effed around yesterday and didn't get the chapter to my beta and proofreader until late last night. Let me actually go ahead and send her my next chapter for Saturday while it's on my mind.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, please! I appreciate it!


	52. Standing

**Chapter Fifty-Two: Standing**

Asking for the grand tour was a glaring way to save her the trouble of dealing with the implications of what she'd admitted to him, but Vader allowed the avoidance anyway. Not because he wasn't sure what to say to or do with the admission, but because the dark side had risen in him, encouraging the part of him that was possessive and controlling and domineering. It whispered that her words and actions were her way of offering herself to him, that she was open and willing to be his, that she would allow him to dominate her and that he should take it. That she belonged to him and he should make her to know it. Vader forced himself to bring that part of himself to heel, not sure how Ahsoka would react if he exposed it.

While she seemed to be pushing their unspoken boundaries with her increasing touches and invasions of his personal space, he couldn't readily call her actions an invitation. Especially when he wasn't sure she knew what she was doing. A voice in his head that sounded irritatingly like Sabé told him that he should just ask and that their lack of communication would lead them nowhere except a future misunderstanding.

Still, he allowed himself to bask in the pleasant hum that she was unconsciously sending across the bond, and he didn't push her away as she kept her left arm hooked around his right. At the same time, he listed off layouts and specifications that he could spit out in his sleep and continued to resist the dark side and his more primal impulses and instincts.

After their long tour was done, they went back to the main manufacturing facility. As they did so, Ahsoka began to talk about how much of a headache it was going to be to coordinate the movement and convergence of thousands of alliance members and soldiers from different parts of the galaxy, hundreds of star systems, and just as many if not more rebel cells that hadn't yet been consolidated with their main base. The Force may have been silent in his meditations about whether he should sit Ahsoka on the Imperial throne, but she proved time and time again that she was capable of it.

Vader still was not a fan of the Senate. But, at least if he put her at the helm of it, she would keep a fine balance between allowing the governing body some autonomy and compelling them to action when needed. An actual governing body that put the needs of the galaxy first and not the wants of the wealthy oligarchs who took advantage of the masses. And he would be there every step of the way enforcing her rule throughout the galaxy. He would obliterate anyone that dared to oppose her, anyone that disrupted her peace. Anyone or anything that dared to go after what belonged to—Vader stopped the train of thought and brought the darkness to heel yet again.

"Vader," Ahsoka said, once they were back on the ship, snapping him out his thoughts.

He blinked and looked at Ahsoka, whose blue eyes were shining bright with concern for him.

"What?"

"You're unusually quiet. You normally would have given me your opinion by now," she said, finally letting go of his arm so that she could fully face him.

"I don't particularly have one at the moment. You seem to have good ideas."

Ahsoka laughed. "That's never stopped you before."

Vader made noncommittal noise of acknowledgment but didn't answer.

She frowned at his silence and asked, "Are you okay?"

When he was about to reply, he felt a nudge interrupt the humming of their bond and the words, _Don't lie_, whispered in his head.

He lied anyway.

"I'm fine."

Ahsoka sighed and gave him that unimpressed look she always gave him when he was starting to test her patience.

"Vader, really?" she asked, tone longsuffering.

Genuine concern for him replaced the gentle hum from her that had been vibrating across the Force. Vader wondered when was the last time someone showed any genuine concern for him. Not the innocent concern that Luke and Leia sometimes showed for him without the knowledge or context of the cruel, dark deeds he'd committed, no matter how justified some of them were. Not the obligatory concern for their superior officer that a subordinate officer often gave. Not the concern of Palpatine or Moffs or any other high ranking Imperial officers, only concerned about him as far as making sure no ailment or distraction interfered with their ambitions. Certainly, Ahsoka was concerned about those things sometimes. Force knew she was always reminding him to keep his temper under control as not to ruin their plans. But her concern right now was selfless simply because she was so… good.

Her caring, a blatant weakness, should have disgusted him, should have had him wrapping the dark side around himself as a shield from her goodness and to try to smother her light. Instead, he was drawn to the source so diametrically opposite to him, and the dark side whispered gleefully, admiring the power he knew she could exude when she wanted to despite her apparent weakness.

The galaxy would not follow him, not without a fight. But with enough _gentle_ persuasion, they would follow Ahsoka. And through their usual brand of fighting and arguing, she would concede to some of the demands he would condition giving her his Empire.

The dark side whispered again. She was his creation. And he would make her to know it.

He didn't try to bring the darkness to heel this time, his Force signature exuding power. While he sensed her confusion, he sensed no fear or caution, and she didn't retreat from him.

_Mine, _came the thought unbidden as he closed the space between them and pressed his lips to hers. He sensed surprise across their bond before the gentle hum returned as she accepted and leaned into not just his physical embrace but the embrace of his dark force signature around her own. The darkness roared in victory and glee at her acceptance. Possessing her. Owning her.

He should have known it wasn't going to be that simple. Never with her.

Abruptly, she gasped against his lips, simultaneously pushing him away and managing to move so that she was the furthest she could be away from him in the area. The serene calm she typically maintained about herself vanished as she lost control of her emotions. Even if he weren't so intimately connected with her, he would sense her turmoil. A conflicted mixture of panic and contentment. Despair and hope. Grief and joy. All of it swirling into an indistinguishable tangled mass until she appeared to get ahold of herself and get the emotions back under control, tucking them behind thick mental shields. The pleasant hum across their bond went silent as she closed the pathway between them from her side.

Her face set into that grim, determined look it always did when she made up her mind to do something and expected trouble or opposition.

"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded.

He matched her determination, exceeded it probably, and said, "I can ask you the same thing."

Before she could ask what he was talking about, he forced a few fleeting images past where he knew the cracks in her shields to be. Her reaching out to clasp his hand. Allowing herself to lean against him. The way she'd hooked her arm around his and hadn't let go earlier. Pushing and outright breaking the boundaries of their unspoken agreement to keep their distance from each other.

Her expression faltered, and she waited a few moments before saying, "I can admit those were…moments of weakness that I allowed myself to indulge in—"

"Don't talk to me like you're talking to your Rebellion High Command," he interjected.

She continued without addressing him or changing her tone.

"But whatever there is between you and me has to stop here. We agreed to—"

"I agreed to let you do things your Jedi way and ignore the issue in hopes that it would all go away. It hasn't. We both know it."

The fact that she didn't deny being a Jedi said a lot about her headspace right then as she snapped, "Only because you refuse to ignore it."

"No more than you refuse to."

A few occasions immediately came to mind—even a few that slipped his notice, making him realize that some of the memories weren't all his own. A few were coming from Ahsoka.

"Regardless of where the blame lies," Vader continued, aware that the two of them could play the blame game all day, "I've grown tired of all this pretense and pretending."

"You didn't seem opposed to it before."

"Only because I was…uncertain about what you thought your standing was regarding me," Vader admitted. Knowing Ahsoka would know that to be a half-truth, he added, "And I was frankly unsure where I wanted that standing to be. Now I know."

She narrowed her eyes, "And where is that, _my lord_?"

He ignored Ahsoka's mocking.

It would have been the opportune time to tell her about his intentions to make her the galaxy's next ruler while he stood guard and enforced her rule. But now was not the time to make that revelation. If he revealed it too soon, she would fight against it. She would find a way to circumvent him and ensure she would not rule. She would do something insane like make one of the members of High Command the face of the Rebellion, and in order for his plan to work, she needed to be the face. People needed to already trust and know to follow her.

So instead, Vader answered with a different truth. A simple one.

"Wherever I stand."

The answer did two things. First, it took her further away from the other truth of his intentions for her; second, it enraged her.

"You don't get to make that choice for me."

That might have been true, but it was also irrelevant.

"What other choice is there for you to make?" he asked.

"Even if there isn't, what are you going to do if I refuse you? Would you let me live?"

She didn't need to tell him why she asked that question. The most obvious basis for it was that when Padmé refused him, he strangled her. Less obvious were his and Ahsoka's encounters on the battlefield. Their first fight over the Jedi. Their second fight over the Death Star. Both times he'd been willing to hurt her, even if not outside that context. What would he do when it was something far more valuable that he wanted? What would he do when their fight was over her own destiny?

"I wouldn't kill you or, rather, I wouldn't try to kill you, if that's what you're asking."

"I didn't ask if you'd kill me. I asked if you'd let me live. If you would stand by and let me do something other than stand beside you if that's what I chose."

Vader didn't have to contemplate the answer. He would rage. Because the only reason Ahsoka would refuse him was out of some misguided attempt to challenge him. To assert some point that she belonged to no one until she got tired of it and decided to listen to reason. Even now, he felt the simmering rage at the idea that she would refuse him.

He wondered if she sensed his emotions and if that was enough because she didn't press for the answer. Instead, she sat down on the curved bench that lined the round conference area and sighed.

"What even is this between us?" Ahsoka dared to ask. "Love? Lust? Loneliness? Obsession? Whatever it is, are you even allowed to have it?"

He crossed the distance between them and sat next to her, leaving no space between them. She didn't move or try to make space, but allowed herself yet another moment of weakness and pulled his gloved hand into her lap and clasped it in both of hers.

Finally, he answered, "You mistake the limited range of what Palpatine would allow me to have for what the dark side allows. The dark side is limitless. It grants me the ability to attain whatever it is I desire."

"And destroy everything that gets in the way of you attaining it. Even if it's the object of your desire itself," she responded wryly, looking up at him.

"Ahsoka, you have proven as unstoppable as I trained you to be. Even if I tried to destroy you, you would either not allow me to or find a way to destroy me with you." And he had tried, and she had frustratingly resisted him or found a way to outmaneuver him at every turn.

Their closeness invited him to kiss her again, so he did. Not surprised or caught off guard this time, she returned it. The bond that she'd blocked off a few moments ago sprang to life between them again, and thus returned the pleasant hum of her contentment across their bond. He latched on and sent it back toward her in a feedback loop that made her suck in a sharp breath against his lips and shudder. He took the opportunity to plunge his tongue into her mouth but acted with a little more caution in his exploration when his tongue just grazed the tips of her sharper teeth. He explored until he found a spot, just at the front of her mouth, that caused her to sigh in contentment and elicit a noise that sounded something like the distinct clicking consonants and vowels of her native tongue. But less deliberate and much more involuntary.

He pulled away from her and leaned his forehead between her montrals with his eyes closed. He wanted to know more. What other sounds she'd make and mating behaviors a woman of her species would exhibit. He sent this curiosity across their bond.

She didn't immediately answer, but he felt the hum across their bond falter, and the maelstrom of emotions from earlier briefly resurfaced before she hid them yet again.

"Vader," she said.

"Ahsoka."

She took a few deep breaths before saying, "Can you…I just need a little space from you right now."

He didn't want to give it. He wanted to possess and own every part of her. To consume her. He desired for there to be nowhere she could go that his presence did not loom. But though he was persistent and pushy and he would get what he wanted eventually, he knew some things were not meant to be forced.

He took his hand from out of her grasp and her lap, sat up straight, and crossed his arms. He watched as she stood up, all but running out the conference room. Shortly after, he heard the sound of the door to one of the bunks sliding closed and the beeping of the locking mechanism.

Ahsoka didn't come out for the duration of their trip back to his flagship. When they arrived, she gave him little more than a promise to contact him about her plans to move soldiers to take control of her new fleet and an obligatory greeting. Then she boarded her shuttle and left to go back to Alderaan. Vader guessed anyway.

As he watched her ship leave and then disappear into hyperspace, he couldn't help but wonder if in trying to assert her place with him, he'd inadvertently put himself further from that goal. He prodded the Force for an answer in his meditations later. Vader still couldn't get a glimpse of her in the flashes of the Empire that he'd seen, but there was also nothing to indicate that Ahsoka had chosen to be anywhere else. Thus he resigned himself to having to figure out a way to rectify the consequences of his hastiness without assistance from the Force. That was, whenever Ahsoka decided she'd gotten enough space from him.

He went to meditate again—this time seeking patience.

* * *

**AN: **1) I've been trying to reply to reviews, but the site keeps giving me an error when I try. So I'm behind on that again.

2) I knew what would happen in this chapter when I got to it but it took a little reorganizing and rewriting. Finally, I just asked myself, what would these two do. And finally, I was like, Vader would just throw caution to the wind and kiss her. And it all fell into place from there. Lol.

Yeah... I don't have a lot more to say. I'll let you all say it while I go hide in my bunker with the rest of this story in my clutches.

Hope you enjoyed! Review, please! I appreciate it.


	53. Her

**Chapter Fifty-Three: Her**

Back when Ahsoka called herself a Jedi, she spent many days with Padmé. Sometimes at the Senate, when Vader, as disinterested in politics as he was now, pawned her off to Padmé so that Ahsoka could have a more rounded Jedi education. Sometimes as extra security at her apartment when she was hosting political dinners and social gatherings. All the time, as a trusted friend. But she'd still been a Jedi. There was only just so much she'd been comfortable discussing with Padmé, a certain decorum she'd still had to maintain around the woman. There were things she probably would have never gone to the woman to talk about, at least not back then. And Padmé had not only respected those boundaries, but she also understood them.

Breha Organa did not.

Ahsoka knew it was only a matter of time before the woman carved some time out her busy schedule to confront Ahsoka about her mood the last few weeks. That time happened to be early one morning while the woman's husband was at Imperial Center with the Senate being at its busiest in the weeks before Empire Day. One of the handmaidens came to summon Ahsoka to the queen's quarters. Though Ahsoka had been awake already, years of rising early at the Jedi Temple being a habit that she'd never been able to break, she had yet to get dressed for the day. So she threw on a robe over her sleep tank and trousers and made her way to Breha's quarters.

The Queen was sitting up, awake in bed, her almost black hair falling down her back in gentle waves. Spread before her on the massive bed were trays of breakfast. Lots of fruits and grains as was part of the traditional Alderaanian breakfast, but all with meats and proteins for Ahsoka.

Breha looked up from stirring a cup of caff when she heard Ahsoka enter the room, face brightening.

"There you are, my friend," she said and patted the space next to her at the top of the bed. "Come sit. Have breakfast with me."

"As though you're giving me a choice," Ahsoka said. She discarded her robe onto the lounge at the foot of the bed and climbed under the covers next to the woman.

"You're right. I am not," the older woman said with a smile.

Ahsoka shook her head, grabbing a plate and filling it with a few pieces of smoked brisket, sausages, and fruits. Then she asked, "What did I do now?"

"You," Breha said, sucking on a large bright orange berry, "know exactly what you're here for. So are you going to make this easy on me and tell me why you've been in such a quiet, pensive mood lately, or am I going to have to guess and pry it out of you?"

Ahsoka hesitated. "You...probably don't wanna know."

"And why is that?"

"Because it has to do with a certain tall, imposing figure in a dark suit that I associate with. An association you don't agree with. So your opinion would be biased."

"Everyone's opinion on everything is biased. Even our objective ones," Breha pointed out.

"Still. Don't worry about it. I'll sort it out eventually. We always do."

Breha frowned at that. "Ahsoka. Has he been getting violent with you again? I thought you said he didn't do that anymore. You said he hasn't been cruel to you in years. Do you and the children need to be hidden from him?"

"See? Biased," Ahsoka deadpanned.

"I'm sorry," Breha said. Ahsoka could tell she really wasn't. "But every time I've known you to be in a mood about that man, it was because he'd just gotten finished tossing you around like a rag doll in a fight."

"That's only happened twice, and tossing me around like a rag doll is a gross exaggeration."

"I won't mention all the times he's threatened you with physical violence then."

"About as many times as I've threatened him the same."

"But would you even be able to manage it?"

"Breha," Ahsoka sighed.

She raised her hands in surrender. "I've said my peace. Go ahead."

Ahsoka gave the woman a side-eyed look before admitting, "To be extremely honest, I wish I could disappear and hide from him right now. There's only so long he's going to let me have my space and tolerate me ignoring him."

Breha looked at Ahsoka contemplatively, taking a sip of her caff. "Why would you need space from him?"

Ahsoka looked down at her food and then glanced at Breha from beneath her eyelashes. "Promise you won't judge me."

"Ahsoka, I am probably never going to agree with you and whatever association you have with that man, but I'm never going to judge you for it. I won't judge you for anything. I'm here to listen if you need it."

Breha placed an encouraging hand on Ahsoka's arm.

Ahsoka took a deep breath and said, "He kissed me."

A strangled noise came from Breha's throat. When Ahsoka looked up to make sure the woman was okay, she saw the woman's eyes were wide and her face lit up in gleeful shock. When Ahsoka rolled her eyes and groaned, Breha's expression became apologetic, and her face flushed in shame.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to react that way. It's just…"

"You're a massive gossip," Ahsoka accused with a scowl.

"I will never tell your secrets, Ahsoka. You know that. Just for all that I find your relationship with that man incredibly strange, it's generally pretty straightforward and free of drama somehow. You're generally pretty straightforward and free of drama. This is probably the juiciest thing you've ever told me about yourself after the revelation of your association," Breha admitted.

Ahsoka couldn't help but laugh at that. She could never say that Breha had never been entirely honest with her.

"That said, it's not shocking," the woman added.

Ahsoka looked at Breha suspiciously. "How so?"

"It's always been clear to me that you and…your association's," Breha settled on, "understanding was a lot more complicated and intimate than you believed it to be. Frankly, if I didn't know you, as vague and uncomfortable as you are talking about him, I would have sworn you had some kind of romantic history together."

Ahsoka couldn't say she blamed her. She'd long stopped correcting people and their assumptions about her past if they knew anything about her relationship with Vader or her twin children.

"So, he kissed you," Breha confirmed.

"Yes."

"And what did you do?"

"I locked myself in a room on our shuttle and haven't talked to him about it since. I asked him to give me space."

Breha snorted. "You locked yourself in a room on the shuttle. This happened while you were in hyperspace?"

"Before, technically, but yeah," Ahsoka said, feeling herself flush.

"Why would you do that? Were his advances unwelcome?"

Ahsoka frowned. "No. That's the problem."

She hoped Breha wasn't getting the wrong idea. Ahsoka was no innocent, blushing virgin. May had been the most serious relationship she ever had, and it had only been that serious because the other woman wanted it to be. But May hadn't been the only person she'd ever had romantic and sexual encounters with. Most were short, fizzling out as quickly as they'd begun, with people barely more than strangers, usually locals, that she ran into on downtime during a mission.

While she'd met her fair share of beautiful people in the rebellion, there was a certain distance Ahsoka had to maintain. Not just because she was the leader of the entire operation, but she had secrets that needed to be kept. One thing she knew about relationships from experience, both personal and by proxy, was that secrets made no foundation for them.

She hadn't had any dalliance of those natures in years, though. It felt wrong once she'd figured out there was something brewing between her and Vader, even though she knew she didn't owe him that kind of exclusivity because they weren't sure where they stood with each other.

Until now.

Vader made it very clear where he stood with her and where he intended for her to stand with him. And it had been delightfully tempting to just not argue with him and indulge his curiosity about what her body might do beneath his attentions.

"Why is it a problem?" Breha asked.

"It's…" Ahsoka groaned. "A lot of things."

Having no appetite, she set her plate aside on the nightstand, laid back, and pulled the covers over her head, careful not to knock the breakfast at the bottom of the bed.

"Start with one thing at a time then," came Breha's response.

"I suppose we'll start with the obvious. He's a Sith, and I'm an ex-Jedi. We've historically been enemies for thousands of years," Ahsoka grumbled.

Breha hummed. "Would it have been better if you were both Jedi?"

"Oh gods, no," Ahsoka said mortified. "Never mind that it would have never happened anyway, but if we were both still Jedi, Padmé would still be alive, and he would still be married to her. As far as I know, they were not open to a third."

"You don't know that." Breha shrugged. "She might have still died. And relations fizzle out or change."

Clearly, Ahsoka thought wryly, Breha didn't know Anakin Skywalker. He would have spent every moment of his life proving and maintaining his loyalty to Padmé as he had until she died. The thought of being with anyone else would never have crossed his mind. The idea to have any more than the sibling-like friendship they'd had would have never crossed Ahsoka's mind as an option. She'd been as loyal to Padmé as a friend as she'd been to Anakin.

Ahsoka decided not to argue that point with Breha, and Breha didn't argue it with her either.

"Never mind all that. If somehow Padmé had been a non-issue, would it have been better then?"

"No. We were both Jedi."

"And despite that, you admitted yourself that you both were closer than most. Not to mention that he was married despite that."

"Yeah, but something like that between us would have been breaking two taboos. One of which definitely wouldn't have been overlooked and definitely gotten him put out the Order."

"Okay. I know the first one is the attachment rule. And frankly, that has never made sense to me no matter how you tried to justify it."

It didn't make sense to Ahsoka either now that she was on the other side of it. The Jedi weren't the only religious order in the galaxy that had frowned upon having material and emotional attachments. But other religious orders weren't so intimately involved in the politics and everyday happenings of the galaxy. They also typically didn't take members until they were old enough to make the choice to devote themselves to such a lifestyle. And most other orders hadn't fought in a war where Ahsoka knew for a fact those emotional attachments had helped them cope.

"So, what's the second taboo?" Breha asked.

"That kind of attachment between a teacher and student. It would have been considered the equivalent of incest," Ahsoka explained simply.

For all that the galaxy saw the Jedi as a tremendous supernatural power, at the end of the day, they'd had the same frailties common to most sentient, organic beings. Anakin would not have been the first person that would have faced possible expulsion for having a romantic attachment in the Jedi's thousand-year history. He wouldn't even be the first Jedi to have children. No one talked about them, and the cases were far and few in between, but it happened, and the Order dealt with the parties involved as delicately and gracefully as they could. But a master-padawan romantic relationship was so taboo that it just never happened.

The bond between teacher and student was considered sacred. To engage in a romance during the apprenticeship would have been considered sacrilege at best—rape at worst (in some instances). Even after the completion of the padawan's training, it would have been considered the highest abuse of the master's power and authority. For such an offense, the master would have been expelled, no questions asked. If she had that kind of relationship with Vader when they were both Jedi, it would have been more scandalous and reputation ruining than his marriage to Padmé if discovered. For something like that to have happened during the war would have been a public and social disaster. That was without considering the fraternization rules for the GAR.

"But it's not incest," Breha finally answered. "For all that it would be questionable, every situation and relationship has nuances that distinguish it. Bail and I were in a similar situation. As you know, he's quite a bit older than me and did act in a sort of mentorship capacity when I was younger. But by the time I fell in love with him, I was an adult, and we were on an even playing field as far as I was concerned. You're not his student anymore, Ahsoka. And I don't think that you ever were matters. There's no one alive to enforce it. Or make it a scandal."

Ahsoka removed the covers from her head just enough to look up at the Queen.

"Breha. It's still a scandal. Do you remember what I do and who he is?"

"Okay… now that one's fair. The politics around that are going to be a nightmare to deal with," Breha said sympathetically. "But with a person of your standing, that's going to happen with anyone you date."

"Why did no one tell me this stuff before I decided to lead the Rebellion?" Ahsoka groaned.

"No one ever does. Now. What's the next problem?"

"Palpatine," Ahsoka said promptly. "Not so much Palpatine although he's a problem in and of himself. But the reason we're in this mess is because Palpatine offered him the power to save his wife if he helped him take the galaxy and destroy everything. I don't want him to even contemplate doing anything like that for my sake."

"You're not responsible for his actions. If he feels a certain way about you and that's what he decides to do, he's going to it whether or not you encourage his affections. Besides, you're speaking as though you're not the same person who went to Jakku on a hunch just to make sure he wasn't in trouble," Breha reminded her. "But I really don't think you care about either of those reasons. I think this is about _her_. She's come up in both of your answers."

Breha would have made a formidable Jedi had she been Force-sensitive, Ahsoka mused. That or the woman knew her a lot better than Ahsoka thought she did. Probably a combination of the two. Making that leap would have required a person to know she'd been close to Padmé.

"Why is she a problem?"

"I don't know," Ahsoka muttered.

"Yes, you do," Breha said patiently. Knowingly.

She was right.

"I…" A lump formed in Ahsoka's throat as tears came to her eyes. Force, it had been years since she let herself cry. "This is the life she wanted."

Not exactly the life. Padmé never would have asked to be living in hiding while on the run from the Empire. But Ahsoka knew that despite the woman's career aspirations, the thing that brought her the most joy and fulfillment were the people she cared for. Her husband. The children she never got a chance to meet.

"I never would have asked for any of this. I was a Jedi. It never crossed my mind to ask for or want anything that resembled a family like this. I didn't want any of this," Ahsoka admitted as she pulled the covers back over her face. "But now she's not here, and I feel like I was somehow lying in wait coveting what she had, hoping for if or when she was out the picture."

Breha sighed and put her caff aside. Then Ahsoka felt the woman lie back and get under the cover with her, turning on her side as to face Ahsoka.

"Do you want it now?" she asked.

Ahsoka shrugged. That was a dangerous question to answer. Breha didn't press for one.

The Queen asked instead, "Have I ever told you the legend of how Alderaan got its mountains?"

"No."

"Then I'll tell you. There was a time when Alderaan had no mountains. It was a flat smooth orb for as far as one could go—a ball of ice as inhospitable and nearly uninhabitable as Hoth. Our ancient human ancestors lived here, but the harsh winters frequently killed many and destroyed their attempts to build a greater civilization. One day though, the people learned that an asteroid was to collide into their planet and that if it did, many people would die. They worked together to try to stop the collision, even going so far as trying to speed up the planet's rotation so that that it would miss the asteroid. When nothing worked, they prayed to Mother Alderaan to save them. But her answer was not one they expected. Rather than give them the solution to save them from the imminent danger, she told her children to let it be.

"Naturally, they felt betrayed that she would do nothing to stop the disaster, but they were left with no choice. When the asteroid crashed into the planet, it was devastating. Many people died during the collision and the resulting shift of the planet's orbit. Gone was the planet's smooth surfaces, replaced with beautiful mountains and hills and valleys, though the people left behind did not think so. Not yet. However, when the harsh, deadly winters came again, the people realized they weren't as devastating. That was because the mountains, which they'd seen as an abomination, caught the bulk of the storms. The respite allowed them to build beautiful cities and structures. The new orbit of the planet allowed it to warm, and the snow on top of the mountains melted in steady streams that became our rivers. With the mountains protecting us from the deadliest part of the winter storms, there were so many more people who were born and able to live.

"But none of that would have happened if not for the asteroid and Mother Alderaan allowing it to be, despite the many people who died. If they hadn't, many others would have perished over the centuries, and we wouldn't have the Alderaan we have today. Thus, we have a saying. Sometimes, someone's loss is another person's blessing. That's not to say we wouldn't do everything we can to stop tragedy from happening. But when there's nothing to be done, we must let it be and hope that Mother Alderaan allows us to see the blessing on the other side," Breha finished her story.

Silence filled the space between them. Ahsoka didn't know for how long. After several long moments, Breha said, "I know Padmé's death was a great and terrible loss for you. She died, and now you're on the receiving end of everything that she ever wanted. But not only did she care for her children and her husband, she also cared for you. She wanted you to be happy. To say that you wished you could have switched places with her and to deny the happiness she's left behind is to deny her loss and dishonor her death. Because she wouldn't have wanted you to switch places with her. And if it had been you, you wouldn't have wanted her to do that either."

"That doesn't feel fair," Ahsoka said quietly.

"No. It doesn't. And I'm sure the people who died when the asteroid crashed into Alderaan didn't think so either. Until they saw the good it did for the people left behind when they returned to our Mother," Breha said. "Life doesn't always seem fair. But even the bad always works toward the greater good."

Ahsoka scoffed. "You sound like the Jedi."

"Well, I heard they were pretty wise."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes, "About some things, Breha. About some things. I can't believe you're actually encouraging me to pursue a relationship with Vader."

"I'm not encouraging you to do that at all. I'm encouraging you to do what will make you happy, despite who it seems like you're happiest with. Tell me, Ahsoka. What is Vader to you?"

Another one of Breha's simple but very loaded questions. It required Ahsoka to not just go over the last few months or years at his side, but their entire tumultuous history.

He'd been meant to be her mentor, to prepare her to be a Jedi Knight. But even back then, she'd been aware that their relationship wasn't the typical master-padawan pair. She knew this not only because he'd defied most expectations of a master, but also because of her encounters with other padawans. That wasn't to say he didn't set boundaries and reprimand her when he needed to, but those boundaries were very different from other master-padawan pairs. To this day, Ahsoka couldn't put it into words. Maybe it had something to do with their relatively small age difference in comparison to most pairs. He'd always felt more like an older brother and later was her best friend.

After she'd been knighted, they'd been partners. For one quick mission that Ahsoka couldn't even remember before the Council began to go through great pains to keep them apart. Both she and Anakin had noticed. Neither had the time or energy to call the Council out on it. Then they'd just been equals, best friends who rarely got to see each other anymore but kept in touch when they were both at the temple together. The Council couldn't regulate that even if they'd wanted to. Then he betrayed the Jedi, tried to kill her, the results of his actions left her raising his children, and they'd been enemies. They'd still been enemies for a while even after he'd discovered her on Sheba. Civil enemies with a common goal but enemies nonetheless. That was until both their anger at each other started to cool and Vader proved he was determined not to make the mistakes of the past that led them to becoming enemies. Then they were back to being friends. Much more explosive for sure but friends.

Now, Vader was a potential lover? Maybe? But that didn't seem encompassing enough. Because sometimes they still found themselves on opposing sides of a fight. Even if they figured out they didn't want a romantic relationship, he would still be the only person she could ever truly let her guard down around because there were no significant secrets to keep between them. And they'd always have some stupid rivalry going on. Because they were both competitive, and he was proud and the only one that could genuinely get under her skin and make her get beside herself.

"He's…" Ahsoka trailed off, exhaling. "He's everything."

"Like a soul mate or something."

Ahsoka snorted. "We are too explosive to be soul mates. On Shili, it would probably be more correct to say that he's my heart."

Her heart.

Oh kriff.

"Well, that's pretty important," Breha commented like Ahsoka had just told her the weather outside. "Regardless, you're absolutely miserable when things aren't going well between you two. And while it may seem strange and wrong to others, what may be imperfect for everyone else may be perfect for you," Breha advised sagely.

Ahsoka sighed. "What would I do without you?"

"Probably brood around for weeks until you just throw all caution to the wind and fall in bed with the man the next time you take the twins to see him. And then you would have brooded about that until after enough times, you stopped caring. With me, you can skip straight to the falling in bed without caring. When it does happen, I expect details."

"Breha!" Ahsoka exclaimed, aghast.

Breha giggled, and Ahsoka couldn't resisting giggling with her.

* * *

**AN: **1) So we address the elephant in the room. Padmé. I could not write this story without doing it. And Vader has to deal with that too...

2) As someone who is part of organized religion with certain rules and tenants, I absolutely refuse to believe that there wasn't drama that was kept quiet in the thousand-year-history of the Jedi. There is no way Anakin was the first to come along and have children. The first to be in a relationship. The first anything. Someone broke those rules before. My bet is that plenty of Jedi did. But the Jedi probably hadn't been as much in the public eye when things like that happened and could keep it quiet.

3) Ahsoka commenting on how the Order would have seen a relationship between the two in different circumstances is something I am fascinated with and that I have yet another story in the works for. For those who don't quite get it, it would kinda be seen as the equivalent of the Catholic Church pedophilia scandals. There would be so many concerns and questions. They're a master-teacher pair. There's a clear imbalance of power. Is it really as consensual as Ahsoka would argue? She's seventeen (maybe even sixteen). There's a five year age difference. In some contexts, that's no big deal. But... they met when she was fourteen. Did he groom her? What are the ages of consent? In some cultures, they'd shrug it off. In the Core, at the heart of the Republic, I doubt it. Would that make Anakin a predator? And that's without the fraternization rules in the military. It would be the scandal of the ages, and there would literally be nothing the two could say to defend the relationship that wouldn't make the situation worse. I've only seen one story about these two and a relationship they have during that time that comments on some of this. But even then it's kinda passed over. But this may be a project for next year. And not nearly as long as this story... Hopefully.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review please! I enjoy and appreciate your insights.


	54. Wish

**Chapter Fifty-Four: Wish**

"You have the most impeccable timing," Vader commented as soon as he answered Ahsoka's comm, and her image came up as he prepared a shuttle to go down to the surface of Naboo.

Two weeks out from when he and his master would arrive on the planet for Empire Day, Vader traveled to Naboo under the pretense of one final meeting with the Moff of the sector and his immediate subordinates about their security measures for the week. An unnecessary fool's errand, as far as the Emperor was concerned, but all the more for Vader to be absolved from blame when the rebellion underwent their attack.

"Am I interrupting something?" Ahsoka asked, raising an eye marking in a way that signaled she wasn't too concerned.

"Not yet. What has gone wrong now that we need to fix?"

Ahsoka shrugged. "I'm probably getting on everyone's nerve coordinating our debut, but everything's fine. I didn't contact you to discuss any pressing matter. Not Rebellion or Imperial related, anyway."

"What did the twins do now?" Vader asked.

She'd relayed to him weeks ago that she was having trouble with the two children acting out in protest that come Empire Day, they would be moved from Alderaan. It had been a wise gamble early in the Empire to keep two strongly force-sensitive children in the Core. But Alderaan and the Core worlds would be facing increased security once the Rebellion revealed itself and eliminated one of the Empire's allies. The risk of them being discovered would be exponentially higher in the coming weeks, even with all the precautions Vader knew Ahsoka and the Alderaanian monarchy took to hide them.

The twins exhibited wisdom and understanding far beyond their years, given the nature and arrangement of their family dynamic. They'd learned from an early age to keep secrets and how to divert people's attention away from oddities that might give those secrets away. But every now and then, they reminded Ahsoka and Vader that they were still children who didn't understand the full gravity of the danger they were in by virtue of who their parents were. And because of that lack of understanding, they were prone to the emotional outbursts of children their age.

Leia, in particular, reminded them yet again of just how much she'd taken after him. She'd tried to remain calm at first, but when she realized that no argument she or Luke could give would change Ahsoka's mind, Leia threw a tantrum the likes of which Vader had, fortunately, never experienced and that Ahsoka hadn't seen in years. She spouted hurtful words and accusations, blaming Ahsoka for her heavy involvement with the Rebellion, stomped to her room, and didn't talk to Ahsoka for days. Luke, much less spiteful than his sister, would never say the things Leia was bold enough to, but he certainly seemed to share her sentiment. He resigned himself to Ahsoka's decision before joining his sister. He hadn't entirely given Ahsoka the silent treatment, but he had sulked around and not gone out of his way to interact with her.

When she told him what had happened, Ahsoka shrugged it off while trying to hide the fact that she seemed ready to cry. Knowing better than anyone that Ahsoka had as much of a stubborn sense of pride as he did, Vader refrained from pointing it out and told her she'd made the right call instead.

"_I know,"_ she'd said, and he got the brief humming sensation across their bond before she realized what she was doing and stopped.

The twins had since apologized, if not forgiven her. Still, they, especially Leia, were prone to subtle acts of rebellion in protest. If this was any indication of what they would be like as teenagers, Force help him and Ahsoka both. Especially Ahsoka since she was their primary parent. He would never be able to repay the debt to her.

"The twins have actually been behaving well this week. I'm not calling to talk about them either."

"Then what is it?"

"I…" She trailed off and averted her gaze.

Vader would never fail to be amazed how in one moment, she could be a confident, unbothered, and graceful general, but in the next, she was sometimes the shy and uncertain teenager she'd been when they first met.

"I just wanted to talk," she blurted out. She hastily added, "Not long. Just really quickly."

Vader paused. While Ahsoka hadn't been giving him the silent treatment, she'd only spoken with him in the last few weeks as far as the line of duty went. Coordinating the movement of soldiers. Asking which hyperspace lanes and routes they would least likely be caught on. Imperial military infrastructure so she could organize the Rebellion's attack on Hutt Space and prepare for the Imperial response. Even when there was opportunity, she didn't allow herself to slip into their usual banter, not even to fight him when she disagreed. Somehow, it was worse than when they met again after the Empire rose.

If he were a better man, he would have understood her apprehension and not pointed that out.

He wasn't a better man.

"I thought you didn't want to talk to me."

"I didn't. I mean, I did. I just wasn't sure how. And I couldn't figure that out with your presence looming over me. I just needed to do some thinking without you."

"Are you calling me overbearing?"

"That's news to you?" she asked. "Not just that, though. It's just…you've consumed a very large part of my life. It's hard for me to remember a time you weren't there because it's almost like that person wasn't me. Sometimes, I don't even know where you end and I begin."

As he landed his shuttle, Vader was unsure of what to do with that statement. It sounded something like a confession, but it was also just a matter-of-fact. A plain truth that had never been secret.

"Did it help? The space?" he asked.

"No. Breha did."

"Breha. Queen Breha?"

"Yeah. She's… She's known about you for a while now. I'm going to introduce you to her one day. She doesn't have a very great impression of you no matter what I tell her, but I think you'll get a kick out of her enough to like her," Ahsoka said with a fond smile.

Vader made a noncommittal sound in response. They would see about that.

"Anyway. I just wanted to let you know…" Ahsoka shook her head. "We'll talk more about everything later."

"We will," Vader agreed.

Ahsoka gave one more shy smile before disconnecting the call.

Vader stared contemplatively at the place where her image had just been before shaking his head and leaving his shuttle. Like she'd said. Later.

Vader walked through the Imperial military personnel hanger deck, ignoring stormtroopers and officers that were milling about standing to attention. He chose a speeder and made his way out into the streets of Theed, purposely not drawing attention to himself with his more theatric driving. He parked in a discreet place once he got to his destination. Far from most people's notice but noticeable enough for any of Palpatine's spies who might be watching and waiting for him to make an appearance to report back to the Emperor. He carefully walked past the sacred graves of the cemetery, making sure to stay on the cobbled stone paths as to not accidently step on a grave. The Naboo were very superstitious about such things. He followed it all the way to the mausoleum in the back where he knew Padmé's grave to lay.

As one of Naboo's favored queens, the mausoleum where her body lay reminded Vader of a small temple altar to make an offering rather than a gravesite. It was isolated from the rest of the graves, the ground for about a twenty-foot radius settled with beautiful Naboo marble of light teal blues with specks of red. On a raised stone platform in the center, right above where the body laid, was a beautiful stained glass painting of Padmé in one of her elaborate queen outfits.

A gate encircled the painting, blocking visitors from getting too close and deterring them from accidentally desecrating the grave. Vader didn't care. He walked past it and knelt before the painting, reaching out to touch the delicate-looking but certainly reinforced glass.

He remembered when he learned she had passed. For hours, he'd watched and rewatched her funeral procession, convinced he'd killed her and their child along with her. Every time he watched it, a small part of his old self died, over and over again until there was nothing left to kill. His former life was gone. He'd destroyed everything and everyone in it to save the one thing that had mattered most and failed. He expected no one to forgive him for it, nor did he want their forgiveness. He was convinced he'd never be happy or content again. And if he had to suffer, so did the entire galaxy for the transgression. He let the dark side make him a monster.

How things had changed since then.

Vader discovered that while his actions might have led to Padmé's death, they hadn't led to the death of their children—the manifestation of their forbidden and ill-fated romance, survived not because of his actions, but despite them. And since that discovery, he'd spent every waking moment toward making a galaxy to ensure that they would not only continue to survive but thrive.

He'd never visited the memorial before. Watching the funeral procession had been enough. The one time he had the desire to was when he'd brought the twins to Naboo. But even as risk-prone as that trip had been, he knew it wouldn't be a good idea to visit. Not many people remembered Anakin Skywalker anymore. But all it would take would be for the wrong person to get a glimpse of him, holding the hands of two small children, for things to have unraveled spectacularly. Even if he'd been heedless enough to think it might be fine, he was sure Ahsoka would have put her foot down and physically fought him before she let him. There would be time for bringing Luke and Leia here later when they'd defeated Palpatine and taken his Empire. His visitation, though, was long overdue.

He opened his mouth to speak and then groaned. He was not doing this with the mask of Vader, the mask that everyone knew as Vader. So he wrapped the dark side of Force around him in such a way that if anyone came by, they'd see nothing truly remarkable except a vague sense of a shadow that they'd want to get away from. Then he removed the helmet and mask and set it aside.

He wasn't naïve enough to think removing the two pieces would make him any less Vader, the new version of him that Padmé had ultimately rejected. But all the same…

"Hello, Padmé. I know it took a long time to come see you."

He placed his gloved hand back on the stained painting, allowing long-suppressed memories of a life that was no longer his to resurface.

It was a beautiful image of her, but not the image of beauty that came to mind when he thought about her. When he thought of her, he saw beautiful brown curls cascading down her shoulders and a beautiful glowing smile lighting up her face. Just like she'd been the evening after she revealed her pregnancy to him.

"I…"

Force. He felt like he needed to say so much. So much that he should have said and didn't over the course of their marriage. So much that he should have done, could have done to be a better husband to her. Things Padmé never would have asked of him but should have, even though she shouldn't have needed to.

Finally, he settled on, "I'm sorry."

And truly, he was. For everything he'd ever done to hurt her. Willingly and out of spiteful jealousy that the Republic and her job as a Senator seemed to get more time with her than he was able to steal away. Unwillingly because he'd been so unwilling to listen to her when she tried to get him to see from her point of view that at some point over those short years, she'd just stopped talking much about things to do with the war and politics at all. That hadn't left them with much to talk about, considering the war and politics consumed their lives and those things were so intricately connected to Padmé's passions and desires. She tried to bring the topic up towards the end of the war, in the last days of her pregnancy, but again he'd rebuffed her. Maybe if he had listened…

Vader shook his head. It might have changed nothing.

Still.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I stole the chance for you to raise Luke and Leia. Ahsoka's their mother now. She's raised them a lot more than I've ever had the chance to. She's kept them safe for us and taught them well. Different than you probably would have, but she's doing a good job. They're as wonderful as you knew they would be." Vader paused. "She and I are working together to stop Palpatine, and once we do, I'm going to make her the Empress."

Vader hesitated and then added, "I know you championed democracy and the Republic, and if you were here, I know you would have made it work. But right now… Right now, I don't think that's what the galaxy needs. It won't be like Palpatine's Empire. Ahsoka won't let that happen. But… well, it won't be the Republic again. I'm sorry if that disappoints you."

As Sabé liked to say, they had to live for the living. The galaxy would be unstable as it was. To force the Empire into a complete and utter surrender to go back to the ways of the Republic was practically inviting another war.

"But we're going to try to compromise. To listen to the other side. Just like you wanted," Vader groaned with a hard roll of his eyes.

May the gods help him when the Empire and the Rebellion did sit down for a truce. Just listening to some of the things Ahsoka told him about enraged him. He was going to lose all patience and threaten someone at least a dozen times before they came to agreement about how to best run the galaxy.

"I wish…"

Vader wasn't actually sure what he wished anymore when it came to Padmé. For the longest, he'd wished she were still alive, that she was still here with them. That he could undo the damage he'd done to her. Now, he had very conflicted feelings about that.

He would probably never admit it in as many words to anyone, not even to Ahsoka herself, but he liked whatever it was he had with her now. Liked the potential of whatever it was that was far beyond friendship that was blossoming between them. By no means would they ever be a typical or traditional couple. Even on their best days, they could be rivals, enemies, allies, friends, and every other way to describe a relationship with someone wrapped up in one. And Force knew he would never have the words to explain that to anyone. But his and Ahsoka's entire relationship was atypical and untraditional from the moment they'd met, and Vader had never been one to do anything a particular way because tradition mandated it. Having Padmé back would undoubtedly complicate matters more. Besides, if she hadn't died, his relationship with Ahsoka would have never evolved in the way it had.

Vader frowned. That almost felt like saying he was glad Padmé had died. Stuck between wishing Padmé hadn't died and yet not wanting to lose what he'd gained, even through all the trauma and loss, Vader sighed.

"I wish I could just have one more conversation with you. A real one. Nothing off-limits. I wish I could talk to you, and you could talk to me one more time, and I could tell you I was sorry. That I never meant to hurt or disappoint you, regardless of whether you accepted it or not."

There was no feeling in the Force validating him or absolving him of his sins and guilt. Just silence and the stillness of the memorial. Vader hadn't expected anything more.

He picked up the pieces to his mask and helmet, starting to turn away from the memorial. He stopped, though, and looked back at the stained glass.

"I'm going to try not to mess things up this time." He shook his head. "I'm _not_ going to mess things up this time. Not with Palpatine or the Empire or the twins. Not with Ahsoka. I promise."

With that, he put back on his mask and helmet and left.

Now to start a war.

* * *

**AN: **1) So about these last two chapters. I thought it was really important to show that both Vader and Ahsoka are finally putting Padmé to rest. Not to say that they still don't feel bad or guilty about how it all went down, but they're not going to let her shadow loom over them.

2) Also, this is probably the first time that we get a sense that Vader might regret a lot more than just that Padmé died. Not that he's going to outright admit that for a long time.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review, please. I enjoy and appreciate your insights!


	55. Tatooine

**AN: **Before we get started, just wanna credit my fellow star wars writer Fialleril for her ideas about Tatooine slave culture that she came up with. Namely, the trickster god, Ekkreth, and the secret slave language. Check out their works if you haven't already.

* * *

**Chapter Fifty-Five: Tatooine**

"_We've got a problem,"_ Diya said as soon as Ahsoka answered the girl's comm.

Ahsoka couldn't say she was surprised. Ten days out from Empire Day, except for a few expected hiccups along the way, the preparation for their mission in Hutt Space was suspiciously smooth. Vader had taught her long ago to believe in luck, but not even they were that fortuitous. It was like the old adage, something that Ahsoka should have learned was always true after fighting one war already. Anything that could go wrong, would go wrong, and when it looked like nothing could go wrong, something was going to go wrong anyway.

"What is it?"

"_We lost our spy in Jabba's palace."_

Ahsoka sighed. So much for getting some rest before she had to set out to Tatooine in a few days. Looks like her trip was happening a few days ahead of schedule.

"How?" she asked as she used her datapad to send a message to Rex to get their team up and ready to go in the next three hours.

"_Jabba discovered him,"_ Diya responded simply. _"Fed him to the rancor, one of our smugglers told me."_

"And how does this affect the mission?" Ahsoka asked.

"_Jabba has minefield surrounding the perimeter of his palace. At the onset of any attack, he activates the field, and it obliterates the majority of any groups that rally together enough to revolt against him. Then he sends out all his mercenaries to take care of those who are left. Our spy was supposed to deactivate the minefield for us at just the right moment, giving us time to storm and take over the palace, and giving our other cells across Hutt Space the signal to rise up against Jabba's lieutenants and take over."_

"So, without our spy, we don't have a revolt," Ahsoka surmised as she tucked her tank top into her cargo pants.

"_We have one. It's just a lot harder and riskier. If we're not careful, we'll be fighting off the Empire before we can secure Jabba's territory. At best, we'll be doing both at the same time," _Diya said.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time I've had to lead a fight with two objectives like this. Though you're right. It's going to be close. And tricky." Ahsoka pulled on her boots and put on her utility belt, lightsabers already clipped on. The rest of what she needed was already in the ship that had been prepared to take her to Tatooine in the next few days. "I'll be there in four standard rotations tops, more realistically three and a half if I can get Artoo to navigate a better hyperspace route."

"_What's your plan?"_

"To try to get someone into place in that slug's palace by Empire Day. I'll see you then," Ahsoka declared as she cut off the comm. Then she left her room, passing through the hall of the apartment suite she shared with the twins when she was on Alderaan and made her way to their shared room.

It was very early in Alderaan's morning cycle, an hour or so before dawn. But Ahsoka made a habit to never leave the planet without letting the twins know when she was going.

Neither liked to be awakened before they were good and ready, so they were a little groggy when she first woke them. However, it didn't take long for them to notice that it was still dark out and that she was awake and dressed to go. It took Luke just a bit longer to become alert than it took Leia. So, Ahsoka climbed into his bed, sat up against the headboard, and gestured for Leia to climb in next to them. Once they were settled, Leia was curled on her left side, idly playing with Ahsoka's lek, while Luke did the same on her other side. Just like they used to when they were babies and were still able to securely fit into her arms. Back when it was the only way they would fall asleep at night.

"I have to leave a little earlier than expected," Ahsoka said quietly.

"Oh yeah?" Luke asked.

"Yeah," Ahsoka said. "Something came up. But I just wanted to let you know that just because I'm leaving a little earlier doesn't mean anything changes. Be ready. On Empire Day. As soon as all the celebrations are over. Breha already has everything prepared, and she's sending you with Song and Madison to meet up with me on your birthday. It's important that you don't give her any trouble. If anything changes, Breha will let you know."

"Yes, Mama," Leia said with a groan.

"Luke. Leia. I mean it. This is important. It won't be safe here anymore after Empire Day," Ahsoka warned.

Neither child said anything in response for a while. Then they both sighed and said, "We know."

It wasn't the obligatory concession to Ahsoka because she was their mother, all the while they disagreed. It was a more wistful agreement. Like they actually agreed with her but didn't want to.

"What did you see?" Ahsoka asked.

"Nothing," Leia said with a shrug.

With an identical shrug, Luke added, "We leave on Empire Day. Got it."

Ahsoka had half the mind to get them up and take them with her. But an active warzone was no place for children. She was lucky she had the option to keep them away from it. In a few days, they'd meet up, and she'd take them to the new Rebellion base where she already had rooms set up next to hers.

"I love you both," she whispered, reaching up to caress the top of their heads. "Remember to trust the Force."

"Love you too, Mama," they both muttered, already falling back to sleep.

* * *

Ahsoka had only ever been to Tatooine twice. Once during the first days of her apprenticeship to Anakin to return Jabba's kidnapped son. The second time was to confront Obi-wan just two years or so after the rise of the Empire. How ironic, Ahsoka thought to herself, that her latest visit to the planet was to destroy Jabba's criminal empire and, at the same time, start a war with Palpatine's Empire. She wondered if the Hutt would remember her.

The two suns were high in the sky by the time Ahsoka's ship landed on the part of the settlement that had been designated as landing space. Diya was waiting for her at the bottom of the ramp, a group of about a dozen clones standing behind her. They were dressed in tan and brown, wrapping of the same color wrapped around their heads and visors over their eyes. It was a far cry from the pristine white the new stormtroopers or the clones of Vader's Fist wore. The two standing right behind her held their guns across their chest. The rest had them strapped over their shoulders in a more relaxed position, but still ready nonetheless.

"I appreciate the welcoming party," Ahsoka couldn't help but comment.

Diya sighed. "Sorry. It's not you we're worried about though. Things have been pretty tense lately. Jabba knows we're planning something. He's already got the Empire on high alert in cities like Mos Espa and Mos Eisley. Our saving grace is that this is a relatively new settlement created by former slaves and isn't on any official maps of Tatooine yet. But it won't be that way for long. We've already had to deal with a couple of mercenaries and bounty hunters that managed to find this place."

Ahsoka decided not to ask what Diya meant by dealing with the mercenaries and bounty hunters. It was likely she didn't just mean that she killed them. The girl had a ruthless streak that rivaled Vader's. It was no wonder they didn't get along.

"Let's discuss this somewhere more private," Ahsoka suggested.

"Yeah. But before we do that, you have to meet the council," Diya said, leading her from the landing space to the central part of the settlement.

"The council?"

"The village elders, I suppose you could call them. Except they're not really all that elderly in this settlement. Just the oldest that are present. In the slave quarters, they helped guide and give wisdom to the younger, particularly those leading the underground network of the Liberty Resistance. As an outsider about to lead an expedition, it would be rude for you not to greet them first and make your intentions known so they can judge your worthiness," Diya explained.

"Anything else I need to know about this council?"

"Just tell them that you're the Fulcrum and that Ekkreth sent you."

"Ekkreth?" Ahsoka asked.

"They're one of their gods. The trickster slave god. They have a very high cultural significance in their community."

"But why say Ekkreth sent me?"

"Because you're an outsider, and that's what tall, dark, and psycho told me to tell them when I first came here. Apparently, it's also a word in their secret language."

"Secret language?" Force, Ahsoka wished Diya had told her all this ahead of time.

"Yes. Roughly speaking. It directly translates in Basic to 'sky-walker'."

"Skywalker?" Ahsoka asked, stopping their stride.

"Yeah," Diya said. "What of it?"

"That's…That was my—" Ahsoka paused, the Force giving her a gentle nudge and making her think twice about calling someone her master, no matter the different connotation, around here. "That was my teacher's name."

Diya narrowed her eyes, and furrow lines appeared in her forehead before it dawned on her.

"Oh. Your Jedi teacher," Diya stated wryly, looking like she was trying not to roll her eyes. "Anakin Skywalker, right?"

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes.

"What do you have against Anakin Skywalker?"

"Nothing."

"That look wasn't nothing."

"No offense to you," Diya said with a shrug. "He just always came across as a bit of a self-centered asshole to me. But he taught you everything you know. So I'm sure he wasn't that bad. I just was never impressed with him like the rest of the galaxy who followed the war was."

Ahsoka resisted the urge to burst out into laughter. Most days, she dreaded what the galaxy would think when they found out their old hero had served as their tormentor. But Diya's reaction when she found out Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were one and the same was going to be priceless. Ahsoka wouldn't miss it for the world, hard conversations that would definitely ensue aside.

"It's probably just a coincidence, right? I mean, that name can't be uncommon amongst humans."

"Anakin Skywalker was the only person I ever met with that name. And his home planet was Tatooine where he was a slave before the Jedi found him," Ahsoka relayed to Diya.

Diya made a clicking noise and said, "Huh? Any chance he knew your friend before the Empire offed him with the rest of the Jedi?"

"Yeah. They knew each other."

"Can't imagine a guy like him would have been okay with his charge running around and having kits with a guy who turned out to be a Sith," Diya said.

"By the time the twins came into the picture, I was a knight in my own right. But even then, no. Anakin wouldn't have been okay with it," Ahsoka said with a smile as they got to a large hut made from stone that resisted sand and kept it from getting inside.

"Go ahead. They're waiting for you," Diya said, pushing the heavy brown cloth used for a door aside and gesturing for Ahsoka to go inside. But she suddenly changed her mind, covering the entry again. "Ahsoka, they don't take kindly to outsiders. Outsiders have been exploiting them and their plight for years. I don't know what you can say, but you're going to have to prove yourself no matter who the hell they think sent you."

Ahsoka nodded, and seeming satisfied, Diya moved the cloth aside. Ahsoka went inside, and no one else followed.

The five members stood when Ahsoka entered the room. One was a dark-skinned human female with curly dark hair, another a bald, pale man with a medium length beard, two were of a scaly species that Ahsoka had never run into and couldn't tell any specifics about their genders, and another was a coal-black colored twi'lek woman. Diya was right when she said they weren't really elderly. The oldest of them, the pale bald man, couldn't have been more than ten, maybe fifteen years older than Ahsoka.

Not sure what she was supposed to do, Ahsoka nodded her head, pulling back the cloak that she'd used to shield herself from the Tatooine heat.

"Hello, Council."

"Fulcrum?" the human woman asked.

"Yes. But you can call me Ahsoka."

They nodded and sat back down on their short wooden stools, which Ahsoka took as a cue to sit as well. Ahsoka remembered very little from her early childhood on Shili. But what she did remember were the village elders, a wise group that didn't run the affairs of the village but to whom their people relied on for guidance. She remembered someone carrying her to them—her mother, she thought—and getting their blessing for her to leave and become a Jedi. This council reminded her of that.

They didn't return the pleasantry of giving her their names, and Ahsoka didn't ask as they got straight to business.

"Diya has told us much about you, including the tales of your exploits in the broader galaxy and against the Empire," the human man said. "She says you used to be a Jedi."

"A long time ago, one of our own children freed himself from this place and went to become a Jedi as you were," one of the scaly beings added. Ahsoka hadn't expected their voice to be so gentle, given their rough exterior.

"Anakin Skywalker," Ahsoka stated.

"You knew of him?" the human man asked.

Ahsoka didn't miss how his eyes darted to the twi'lek before he spoke, as though asking permission to ask. She must be the eldest of their council, the one deemed to have the most wisdom because she was longer-lived or experienced in some way. That was if their council worked the same way the council in the village of her homeworld had worked.

If this council worked the same way as the council of her home, it wouldn't do to lie to or mislead them, no matter the necessity. That would make her no better than their former masters in their eyes because only someone that was against them would lie to and betray them. She would have to be straightforward with them. As straightforward as she could be. Kind of like… well, like dealing with Vader. Usually, honesty was the best policy with him. If they asked, she would give them as much of the truth as she could.

Finally, Ahsoka replied, "Yes."

"What became of him? We got word that the Jedi were killed years ago. But if you're here…" the human woman trailed off.

"He lives," Ahsoka admitted, carefully noting how they all sat up a little straighter. "He's the one who sent me here."

"Why would a descendant of Ekkreth send you here instead of coming himself?" the twi'lek woman asked.

"Tatooine isn't the only place in the galaxy that has slavery," Ahsoka said without missing a beat, not bothered by the hostility. She'd be more worried if they weren't. "The whole galaxy is enslaved right now under the Emperor. He's in deep on an infiltration critical to removing him. Success here will mean nothing if the Emperor isn't defeated. But he didn't want to leave you waiting. So he sent me. No one knows of his survival. It's vital that it stays that way."

Ahsoka sensed the next question before it was asked. It made her regret being so vague earlier rather than telling them that Vader had been her Jedi master. It would have allayed their curiosity before they thought to ask themselves.

"Who is he to you?"

This was the second time someone had asked her that in only as many months. Yet, the Force told her that same answer wouldn't suffice. Partner certainly wouldn't be wrong in any sense of the word anymore. But on Tatooine, it might not have the particular connotation Ahsoka needed to alleviate the fears of this council that an outsider was getting involved in affairs that weren't hers. Affairs that she probably couldn't fully comprehend and that they weren't obligated to explain to her. She needed to not only explain her connection to Vader but also show that the link connected her to them in a more direct way. That she had a personal stake in their affairs. There was only one identity, loathe as she was to reveal it, that would accomplish that goal.

After a few more contemplative moments, she said, "I'm the mother of his children."

* * *

**AN: **I don't have a lot to say about this chapter. It's a little light. Call it a palate cleanser considering the rollercoaster Vader and Ahsoka put us through for the last four chapters. That said, I'm sure you all have some insight that went right over my head.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, please. I appreciate your insights!


	56. Idea

**Chapter Fifty-Six: Idea**

The elder council left Ahsoka in the room by herself once their meeting was over. After only a few minutes, Diya came in, Rex following behind her.

"What did you say to them?" Diya demanded.

Ahsoka shrugged. "Nothing special."

"Nothing special? They came out of here talking about you as though you were the one who invented the vaporator. You had to have said something special."

Ahsoka smiled a little and said, "Just because you know some of my secrets doesn't mean I tell you all of them, Diya."

Diya scoffed. "Oh, trust. I know that. One of these days, I'm going to get you to tell me how you met tall, dark, and psycho and how you managed to get pregnant in the midst of a war."

Rex let out a suspicious sounding cough that Ahsoka was sure covered up a snicker based on the amusement she sensed from him.

"One day," Ahsoka assured her. "But right now that's irrelevant. We have to get someone into Jabba's palace, and we don't have a lot of time to do it. Give me the specific details of your plan."

Diya went over their plan from the beginning. Ahsoka made the younger woman repeat every part that they might be able to adjust and turned over every detail in her head. There was a lot they could tweak. A lot that they would inevitably have to as plans never went exactly as they were meant to when it came to these sorts of things. And for all Jabba's strengths and paranoia, he also had many personal weaknesses. But there was nothing they could do to deactivate the minefield without someone on the inside.

"And you've got no one else inside that could manage it?' Ahsoka asked.

"It took us months to get Jabba to trust our spy enough that they had enough access and proximity to be able to sabotage the minefield," Diya said. "There's no one else with that kind of proximity that could manage it not only before Jabba managed to kill them, but also before the Empire's own spies in that place contacted the Empire about the rebellion. And then we'd have a whole other problem."

Ahsoka sighed. Unfortunately, their entire plan hinged on eliminating Jabba. Eliminating Jabba meant breaking the power structure of Hutt Space. Then the Rebellion and the Liberty Resistance could fill the power vacuum and take over channels Jabba had in place to patrol and control the hyperspace lanes. With control of the hyperspace lanes, they could effectively cut off a substantial part of the Outer Rim and even an outer edge of the Mid-Rim, containing planets like Naboo from the Empire, disrupting both supply lines and military access.

Even if they won the battle against the Empire when they came to Tatooine, the victory would only be temporary if they didn't remove Jabba.

"I'm all for just raining bombs on the palace from the above," Diya said with a shrug.

"We want to get rid of Jabba, but we don't want to kill innocent people. There are people there, forced into slavery through no fault of their own. They deserve to be saved. Besides, that kind of attack takes a level of tech and precision we don't have right now."

"It seems _pretty_ necessary to me. There's not a slave, present or former, who's not willing to die for the cause of eradicating slavery. And I've spoken to many. Slavery is a worse fate than death to them."

"Diya, that's not our call to make. If it comes to that, that's a choice we'll let the people who have been part of that institution and their leaders make on their own," Ahsoka said. "Besides, I don't even think we're anywhere near that desperate."

"You've got an idea?" Rex asked.

"Yeah. A good one. Relatively speaking."

"With all due respect, any time you have a 'relatively speaking' good idea, that means things are probably going to hell," Rex pointed out.

"I'm with your bodyguard on this one," Diya chimed. She turned to Rex. "By the way, I don't think we've met yet. I'm Diya."

"Good to have a face to put to the name. Heard a lot about you. I'm Rex."

"Heard a lot about you too," Diya replied. She faced Ahsoka again. "Now what's this good idea?"

"I'm going to infiltrate Jabba's palace," Ahsoka revealed.

Diya and Rex exchanged a look as if to say, "You gonna ask, or should I?"

Diya took the plunge. "And how are you going to do that? I told you. It took years to get someone into Jabba's inner circle."

"I'm not going to attempt to get into his inner circle. That's not the only way to get the kind of access I need. I'm going to infiltrate his palace as a slave, " Ahsoka declared.

Diya outright laughed, while Rex made a noise of astonished disbelief.

"You're kidding," Diya said. When Ahsoka didn't dispute her, she turned to Rex and asked, "She's kidding, right?"

"I wish I could tell you I thought she was, but I've known her since she was fourteen, and this falls in line with the same sort of crazy she was always prone to," Rex responded.

"Glad to know you support me," Ahsoka replied.

"You're far from having my support on this. It may be the insane norm for you, but the difference between then and now is that you always had someone to bail you out. You get in trouble in Jabba's palace during all this, and you'll be on your own."

"Well," Ahsoka said pointedly, "it's a good thing I'm a lot more capable now than I was as a teenager."

"Doesn't matter," Rex replied. "When Vader said to keep you from significant harm, I'm positive keeping you out of slavery was somewhere in the itinerary."

"I side with Rex on this one. Tall, dark, and psycho didn't even make it my job to look after you, and I'm afraid of what he'll do if I have to tell him something happened to you because we let you put yourself in danger for this mission," Diya asserted.

Ahsoka raised an eye marking and teased, "I thought you liked provoking him?"

"Within reason." At Ahsoka's wry look, Diya added, "Ish?" Finally, she said, "Look, I know I do my best to needle him, and you all think I have some sort of death wish. I don't. It's just we disagree on almost everything, and I'm going to tell him when I do. But there are a couple of things I know are off-limits, and that's anything to do with you being harmed."

Ahsoka was well aware of that too. It was one of the reasons Ahsoka had been and still was reluctant to get involved with Vader beyond their tumultuous friendship. But it was like Breha said. He'd probably choose her over the galaxy anyway. And based on what Obi-wan told her about his dealings with the High Council, the Senate, and Tarkin's prosecution, he might have been willing to do something close to it back then. That was never going to change about Vader. So that just meant preempting him before he ever got the chance to make that kind of decision.

"I won't be harmed. I've been training for this my whole life."

Diya sighed and looked at Rex. "There's no way you can stop her from doing this? You're the bodyguard. Your neck is on the line too."

"Kid," Rex said in a long-suffering tone, "Not even Vader himself could stop her if he were here. The best thing we can do is make sure we do everything we can to mitigate the risks ahead of time."

"It's kriffing slavery," Diya said. "You don't mitigate that. You fight like hell not to get caught up in it."

"Doesn't matter. We have no other options. Now I just need someone to present me to Jabba. Got any bounty hunters or mercenaries that regularly work with Jabba that can present me to him?" Ahsoka asked, dismissing Diya's concerns.

Diya looked like she wanted to argue more. Force knew a few years ago, she probably would have. Instead, she answered, "All the undercover hunters and mercenaries that are on our side and could have gotten you in are either already at the palace ready to deal with the chaos inside or are placed in other key Huttspace and Outer Rim locations waiting on our signal." She paused, rolled her eyes, and then said somewhat reluctantly, "But if you're _that_ determined, I have a way to get you in. The only person I'd trust with this kind of mission. He came back from a quick run while you were talking to the Elder Council. That said, keep an open mind. He can be a little… abrasive."

Ahsoka thought that was saying something considering the type of people Diya dealt with on a regular occasion. Vader included.

Diya gestured for Ahsoka and Rex to follow her out the stone structure and back to the landing space. A round Corellian freight ship that hadn't been there when Ahsoka arrived was parked not too far away from her own ship. It was old, battered, and looked like it had seen much better days but made Ahsoka fondly recall another hunk of junk Corellian freighter from her youth. The Twilight. Though there were too many other dependable ships at their disposal during the war to use it much except for missions of a more secretive nature, Anakin had held a particular fondness for the ship. He'd been particularly upset when it was destroyed. But in an uncommon showing of sensitivity, he hadn't had the heart to make a fuss about it to Obi-wan considering everything that he'd been through on Mandalore.

Diya lowered the ramp and led them aboard yelling, "Han! Han, where are you?"

"Do you have no respect for people's privacy?" someone drawled back in a distinct Corellian accent. "Usually, a closed ramp means someone doesn't want to be bothered, sweetheart."

"I'll respect your privacy when you stop calling me sweetheart," Diya shot back as she led them toward the cockpit of the ship.

When they got there, a tall human male, maybe in his very early twenties (if not younger), with dark hair was leaning back in the pilot's seat with his feet propped up on the dashboard.

"Yeah, yeah. What do you want now? I was hoping to get a nap in before you sent me zipping across the galaxy again," the young man said without turning around or opening his eyes.

"Well, just so happens that I don't need to send you zipping across the galaxy."

"A social visit then? Couldn't resist my charm any longer?"

Han took his feet off the dashboard and spun around in his chair with a smirk. It disappeared when he saw Diya had company with her.

"You have the charm of a rancor, Han. And I said I didn't need you to zip across the galaxy. Not that I didn't have a job for you."

Han didn't say anything immediately as he assessed both Ahsoka and Rex. Then, looking back at Ahsoka, he said to Diya, "You never told me you had a twin sister."

"She's not my sister."

They didn't think so anyway. The only thing Ahsoka was sure of was that she and Diya definitely didn't have the same mother since they had different last names. But polyamorous relationships coming in many different forms weren't unheard of or even uncommon on Shili. There was a chance they had the same father. Neither particularly cared about finding out.

"And it would be in your best interest not to try anything with her. She's got a really possessive boyfriend," Diya warned.

"He's not my boyfriend," Ahsoka said, side-eying Diya.

"Seems like you don't agree on that," Han observed.

"I'm serious, Han," Diya said firmly. "If you value your life, just don't. He's tried to kill me twice. One of those times for just saying something he didn't like."

Han laughed, but when no one laughed with him, he asked, "You're joking, right?" When no one contradicted him, he glanced at Ahsoka quizzically. "What kinda boyfriend do you have that goes around killing people for saying stuff he doesn't like?"

"That's irrelevant to this situation," Diya dismissed. However, she exuded a smugness that showed she was taking a special glee in Han not knowing if they were serious or not. "Seriously. The Fulcrum needs your help. Personally."

"Oh. Your illustrious rebellion leader who no one's ever seen but whose name you came in after a guy who goes by the name of an old trickster god sent you here? That Fulcrum?" Han scoffed. "What about him?"

"I," Ahsoka cut in, "need your assistance in infiltrating Jabba's palace. It's time-sensitive and could mean the difference between victory and a catastrophic loss for both the Rebel Alliance and the Liberty Resistance."

Han's eyes widened in surprise. "You! You're the Fulcrum. You're real?"

"What did you think, Han? That she was a deity that I made up to get the people to trust me?" Diya scoffed.

"Ahsoka Tano," Ahsoka said, extending her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"General to you," Diya told him.

"Han Solo," the young man said, standing and grasping Ahsoka's hand. Then his gaze shifted to Diya. "Wait? Don't you impersonate one of those hokey Jedi who went by that name?"

Ahsoka smiled slightly and said, "While I know the galaxy has their issues with the Jedi, and that's certainly understandable, they were far from hokey. I should know. I used to be one." Before Han could ask anything else, she said, "But that's a story for another time. Can you help us?"

Looking properly bashful, Han shrugged and said, "Depends on what it is. Me and Jabba don't exactly have a friendly relationship. So I don't know how you expect me to be able to get you into his palace."

"We're going to disguise you as one of his mercenaries. I kept the armor of the ones that attacked a couple of days ago. Thought it might come in handy. You're going to present Ahsoka to Jabba as a gift. A way to make up for your failure to find the secret Liberty settlement," Diya explained.

Han eyed Ahsoka warily. "And exactly what can she do against Jabba?"

"I'm a lot more athletic than I look," Ahsoka said. "I just need you to get me in."

"And she won't be going in alone," Diya continued. "I was thinking we could send in Chewie with her. If he's okay with that."

"Chewie?" Ahsoka asked.

Han got up and walked past them, heading toward where the engines were.

"Chewie!" he shouted. "Diya's got an interesting proposition for us."

Shortly afterward, Han came back with a wookiee following behind him.

"Chewie, meet—"

"Chewbacca," Ahsoka said, cutting Han off.

The wookiee, who had been brushing dust and smoke off his fur, looked up and growled in delight. Then he walked past Han and lifted Ahsoka off the ground in a hug.

_I thought you died with the other Jedi, _Chewie said in his native tongue of Shyriiwook.

"Well, you know," Ahsoka said, returning the hug, "it's not that easy to get rid of me."

"Why am I not even shocked?" Diya muttered. "Is there anyone you don't know or haven't heard of?"

Ahsoka didn't answer as Chewie set her back on the ground.

"You know her?" Han asked.

_Long story with Trandoshan hunters, _Chewie replied.

"So, I'm guessing you won't mind going undercover as a captive to Jabba's palace with her as backup?" Diya asked.

"I wouldn't consider him backup," Rex said, eying Chewie skeptically. Ahsoka knew what he really meant was that Vader wouldn't consider Chewie backup. "But it certainly never hurts to have a wookiee on your side in a brawl, I suppose."

_Count me in. What's the plan?_ Chewie asked.

"Wait a minute," Han interjected, raising his hands. "This is Jabba we're talking about. You really think he's going to fall for this?"

"We don't have a choice," Ahsoka said.

Unconvinced, Han looked at Diya.

Diya said with a sigh, "She's going to find a way with or without our help. We may as well help. Besides, it's the only thing we've got. Jabba has a weakness for pretty humanoid females with just the right amount of… 'spice,'" Diya settled on while making air quotes with her fingers. "Ahsoka fits the bill. Mostly. She's a little too tall for his liking, but he'll bite the bait and underestimate her."

Han swore in a language that Ahsoka wasn't familiar with before glaring at Diya. "If I do this, we are absolutely even. I don't care what you say or do. I'm out after this."

"I don't think so, Solo. If I hadn't been there, you would have been rotting away in that damn collector's personal museum."

"You two can hash this out later," Ahsoka interrupted. "Are you going to help me, Han?"

Han groaned. "Well, I never could say no to a pretty face, hence why I'm always in trouble."

"You admit it?" Diya asked simultaneously with Chewie.

Han ignored them both. "Alright, General. What's your plan?"

* * *

**AN: **There's no way this plan is going to go wrong. It'll go exactly the way Ahsoka thinks it will. No problem. Vader won't even have to find out about it...

Hope you enjoyed. Review, please! I appreciate them and your thoughtful insights!


	57. Jabba

**Chapter Fifty-Seven: Jabba**

Jabba laughed in that gruff, heavy manner he was infamous for as two of his guards threw Ahsoka on the ground in front of his pedestal. He said something in Huttese, something his translator droid graciously interpreted for Ahsoka.

"So we meet again Jedi Ahsoka Tano. I should have known you were part of the plot to overthrow me."

Ahsoka shouldn't have been surprised that her plan to infiltrate Jabba's palace hadn't gone according to plan.

It started mundane and straightforward enough. Han, dressed in the armor and helmet of the mercenary that the Liberty Resistance had killed, pulled her and Chewbacca in chains through the halls of Jabba's Palace. After a little wrangling between Han and Jabba, Han presented both her and Chewbacca as gifts to make up for his failure and put him and Jabba on good terms again. After some jeering, laughing, and teasing, all of which Ahsoka made sure to react to with clear but suitably careful defiance by tugging on her chains and boldly looking Jabba in the face, Jabba accepted Han's "gift" and accepted her as one of his slaves.

She'd been a young and pretty enough female that he made her into one of his new dancers, but not young and pretty enough that he chained her up next to him on his pedestal. Ahsoka knew she would have been able to work around that, but being a dancer and being dismissed to the slave quarters at night made her job easier.

Too easy.

So when she managed to slip out the slave quarters one night just to get a layout of the palace, she wasn't surprised when she was caught scouting the place. She'd prepared a lie for that. She likely wasn't the first or the last slave that had escaped their quarters and roamed the palace at night, probably looking for food. What she hadn't been prepared for was finding out that Jabba remembered her from their one encounter almost thirteen years ago when she returned his son after Dooku and Ventress had kidnapped him. For stars' sake, she hadn't even had her first growth spurt. But Ahsoka supposed the saying about Hutts were right. They had long memories and held even longer grudges.

Ahsoka took a considering look around, eyeing the guards that had surrounded her. And she couldn't forget the rancor pit below her. Wouldn't have been the worst odds she ever faced, but probably the worst odds she would have to face without her lightsabers, and the flimsy slave costume—a halter top bra held together with gold rings in the front, bottoms to match, and sheer skirts—was no protective armor. But honestly, a couple of blaster bolts weren't the worst thing she would face if she found herself overwhelmed. Being Jabba's new favorite dancer had, in some ways, offered her a protection that the other slave girls in the palace didn't have.

Contrary to what Diya, Rex, and Han thought, the gravity of what she'd gotten herself into wasn't lost on her. It wouldn't be the first time she'd gone undercover as a slave. But back then, Ahsoka hadn't ever strayed too far. The worst thing she'd suffered was a shock and the implication of what awaited her if the Queen released her into the custody of one of her loyal men. And if worse had come to worst, they had the backing of the Jedi and the Republic.

This time was different. The Rebellion wasn't yet a credible threat. Vader, of course, was the only threat she needed if it really came down to it, but that would mean exposing their partnership to some unsavory characters. It wouldn't be her first time being somewhere without reliable backup, but Ahsoka wasn't so naïve as to not grasp how hostile slavery and the broader galaxy, in general, could be to a young, beautiful female. She'd fought in a war. She'd had no choice but to know it.

For all the Republic propaganda that made war look like some noble and pretty thing, there wasn't a lot that had been noble and pretty about it. There were a lot of ugly things. One, in particular, was that it wasn't kind to young women. What Yoda had been thinking assigning someone as young as her to a newly minted Jedi Knight at the frontlines of the war, Ahsoka would probably wonder even more when the twins were fourteen. But she was fairly sure the Council just hadn't been sure what to do with her.

Before the war, most initiates didn't go on to become padawans until they were sixteen or seventeen. However, she'd far outpaced her peers. So much so that she'd started skipping a class or two out of sheer boredom, determining she could find something more productive to do with her time than what her instructors could give her. This, a young new knight who managed to outpace his peers despite not growing up in the temple and a young initiate who was outpacing what her teachers could give her without her being a padawan didn't seem to be a bad idea. She ended up only being the first in what ended up being a long line of young initiates who became padawans at an earlier than normal age. The Council couldn't have known the war would drag on as long as it had or that the galaxy would become as lawless as it did.

Anakin never had any such illusions.

He'd never been big on teaching her Jedi philosophy and theory. Some of it, Ahsoka eventually figured out, was that he didn't buy a lot of it himself. The other part of it was that he had no choice if he was going to see her through the war and to her knighting—the hope being that the war would be short and her knighting would be long after. From the beginning he'd taught her how to fight and beat an opponent bigger than her; how to use tactics that might be considered underhanded by the Order; to rely on her innate aggression and viciousness when needed; to never back down in a fight when she couldn't escape it; to be fearless even in the face of things worthy of fear.

Then the war did get worse, and they were forced into much seedier and hostile predicaments. Places where Anakin forbade her to go off on her own. To always have Rex or Jesse or Fives or any of the 501st with her. Places where being a pretty teenage girl and a Force user were a rare and valuable commodity. She'd seen firsthand the villages and towns, ravaged by both the Separatists and the Republic, where local pirates had taken over or civil war had broken out between the people and the women became the spoils. In some ways, being kidnapped just to be hunted to death by the Trandoshans had been lucky compared to all the other ways being kidnapped could have gone spectacularly wrong.

Still, even if Ahsoka could manage to fight her way out of here, that would put their mission in danger. She had to think fast, though. Jabba was waiting for an answer, and every second she waited meant the more likely she'd be dropped into the rancor pit below her feet, fighting off all his guards, or both.

Finally, she stood to her feet. She was no slave, and she needed to make sure Jabba knew that. Otherwise, he would take nothing she said seriously.

"Plot? Against you? Rest assured, mighty Jabba. You mistake my intentions," Ahsoka said in response. The safest bet was to first to deny the accusations, no matter how in vain that might be. But the truth was, Jabba didn't know she was the Fulcrum or that she was working for the Liberty Resistance, even if he suspected it.

Luckily, he seemed to be willing to humor her and said via his translator, "Oh?"

Smart enough not to stare a gift bantha in the mouth, Ahsoka jumped at the chance.

"I'm here to make a proposition. I apologize for resorting to such deceitful tactics to gain an audience with you, but it was necessary considering my last acquaintance met his unfortunate demise committing an offense against you and your heightened security. All of which I understand were for good reason. The information I have for you is time-sensitive. I'm in a very desperate situation. If I weren't so desperate, I wouldn't have come here under the cover of being a slave and eventually being captured by your guards so that I could get a quicker audience with you."

"Or perhaps, a quicker death."

"I think you'll find that I'm worth a lot more to you alive than the brief thrill my possible death would bring to you," Ahsoka said, a bit of haughtiness seeping into her tone. "I come proposing a truce."

"A truce?" Jabba asked.

"Yes. For you and I have a common enemy, Mighty Jabba. The Empire."

"The Empire has done no offense against me," Jabba said, and even before the translation came through, Ahsoka sensed he was losing his patience.

"Haven't they?" Ahsoka asked. She paused afterward. Not just for dramatic effect, but to remember the details of every financial report and every trade agreement from every meeting she'd had with various committees in the Rebellion. They'd told her about these things. And she'd generally put it all out of her head once the meetings were over in an effort to banish the headaches the information caused her, but she hadn't forgotten all of it.

Finally, she continued, "Sure, they allow your slave trade, making it easier for you to get your hands on slaves, even ones from Imperial space, but I know for a fact their taxes are high, and they don't allow you premium choice because they take the best of the lot to fund their own entertainment and labor industries. In some ways, your access is even worse than the access you had during the days of the Republic. At least then, you had no competition. Even though they didn't personally approve of your lifestyle, they respected your sovereignty as ruler of this planet and now all of Hutt space. They allowed you your autonomy.

"Even if none of that were the case, we both know it's only a matter of time before the Emperor turns his attention toward eliminating you. You and the power you hold are a threat to his regime. He allows it for now, limitedly. But what happens when he finally obliterates all the Rebellions against him and turns his forces against you?"

Now she knew she had Jabba's attention. Because the threat of the Empire to his Hutt Regime was very real. One was in the Emperor's graces until they outlived their usefulness. Jabba had a communication network probably as extensive, if not as secretive, as the Rebellion's. Surely he'd heard how the Mandalorians and the Zygerrians were brought to heel. How there were whispers that Palpatine had plans to invade and bring the elusive and legendary Hapes Cluster under his control. He wouldn't be satisfied until he directly controlled everything in the galaxy. And when he was done with the known galaxy, he'd look beyond. At least according to the can of worms that had been Obi-wan and Cal unraveling Operation Contingency.

"But we can divert that destiny," Ahsoka went on. And we can do it with no cost or risk of retaliation by the Empire to you. All that my Forces and I would require are the usage of your hyperspace lanes for our upcoming operation against them. They wouldn't even ever find out about your involvement in the event that we lost. They'd chalk it up to the sneaky and malicious cunning of insurgent forces."

"No one could possibly stand against the might of the Empire."

"What if I told you that come Empire Day, that won't be true anymore?"

"Even if that were true," Jabba said, rightfully skeptical, "what do I have to gain from an alliance with you?"

Ahsoka knew there was nothing Jabba wanted that she, the Rebellion, or Vader would wish to give him. But Ahsoka hadn't been negotiating and wrangling with Vader for the last seven years for nothing. As far as principles went, Vader had more than the slug in front of her did. But she'd learned over the years that sometimes the best way to buy time and negotiate with Vader was to appeal to his darker nature. Play on the greedy and possessive nature that the dark side amplified in him. Over the years, he'd become aware of her tactics and found ways to use it against her. Just like Jabba would be aware and try to turn her own words against her. But all she needed was time. Time to catch him by surprise. Time to find a moment when his guard was let down so she could disable the minefield.

"Have you ever considered taking your business farther than the Outer Rim and the outskirts of the Mid-Rim?" Ahsoka asked. "Considered extending it past women and children in the wrong place at the wrong time and poor people no one cares about? Think of how high a price kings, queens, princesses, princes, and courtiers would get you. I assure you, Jabba. Whatever it is that we gain, we'll be willing to give you your fair share."

Jabba laughed. "And you alone could make that happen?"

"Not by myself. But my partner could… _if_ you help him secure the Empire. He'd certainly be open to more suggestions."

"Who is your partner? What organization do you represent? Surely not the Jedi?"

"The Jedi are long gone. My partner is someone much more powerful than them." And then, with the Force pushing her along, Ahsoka decided to make a gamble. "A man whose power in the Empire is only second to the Emperor himself." She paused and then said, "Lord Vader."

The whole room laughed this time, but Ahsoka held steady. Force, she really hoped this worked.

"You don't believe me? I can comm him right now?" Ahsoka said as she reached into a thin slit in the padding of her top.

The room instantly tensed, blasters raising and Jabba's hand moving to hoover over the button that would drop her into his rancor pit. Ahsoka almost rolled her eyes. She'd barely been able to fit the comm in the top. If it had been any smaller, she wouldn't have even managed it. A weapon was beyond reason.

When she revealed her item to be a comm, the room relaxed. Blasters tentatively lowered and Jabba moved his hand away from the button.

"Go ahead then," Jabba urged.

Ahsoka swallowed and sat the comm on the ground, changing the setting to project a life-size holo when it connected. As far as Ahsoka knew, Vader was now on Naboo participating in the week-long celebrations leading up to Empire Day. Based on the day cycles that they'd meticulously gone over, even though they would be using standard time for their operation, it was probably closer to midnight on Naboo. Hopefully, the Emperor would have retired, and Vader wouldn't be indisposed.

Once Ahsoka pressed to connect the call, she reached for their bond. Lately, when she was on Alderaan, and he was on Coruscant, she could sense him fairly easily across their connection. They couldn't communicate across such a distance, not clearly, but they were definitely able to send distinct feelings and impressions across the bond. The impression she sent now was one of assurance. One asking, almost desperately—_probably_ desperately—for him to just please trust her on this. To remember that as well as she knew him, he knew her.

She received a combination of impressions back. Something that was definitely confusion, a little concern, but ultimately, a tentative agreement. Not long after, the receiver came to life, and Vader's image appeared in the room.

The tension rose, not just in the room, but across her and Vader's bond as he accessed the situation. Tension and simmering rage. Ahsoka sent feelings of assurance and trust back across the bond. His ire flared, but there was also reluctant agreement and a guarantee that they were going to discuss this later. Stars, Ahsoka knew she wasn't going to hear the end of this one.

"Lord Vader," Ahsoka greeted as though everything was normal and she wasn't on the spot negotiating for Jabba's help to trick him into his own downfall.

"Ahsoka," Vader said.

Most people would have taken it as a formal acknowledgment. But after knowing him for so long, Ahsoka could hear the slight variations of inflection that the voice modulator allowed. She absolutely wasn't going to hear the end of this. Ever.

"I've presented your proposal to Jabba as promised. He's open to helping us so long as he gets his fair share out of the agreement when we eventually succeed in our efforts. I suggested that when you take the Imperial crown, you could perhaps lower the taxes on his exports and imports. Even give him access to more luxury slaves."

Vader didn't answer immediately, and Ahsoka got nothing across the bond either.

"That's agreeable," he finally answered. Ahsoka didn't need to read his mind to know that he meant he agreed with Jabba getting his fair share. It just wasn't the fair share Jabba was thinking of. "Have you briefed our new ally on the details of our operation?"

It was his way of asking what Ahsoka's new plan was now. Because in none of their contingencies had they discussed getting Jabba on their side. If they weren't attacking Jabba's forces and taking over his territory yet, what was their new objective?

"The only thing we require is access to your hyperspace lanes," Ahsoka said to Jabba. "You need not get involved in the details of our siege. Plausible deniability, right?"

_Are you insane?_ came Vader's thoughts distinctly across the bond, bolstered by his sheer incredulity at such an abrupt change of course. To Vader's credit, though, he didn't give away any of his usual tells, like the tilt of his helmet, to suggest his surprise.

Ahsoka ignored the thought, not even able to conjure up the emotion required to send a response back this far across the bond as she looked at Jabba. They'd presented him with what appeared to be a win-win situation. If they lost, there was nothing connecting them back to Jabba. If they won, Jabba seemingly had a lot to gain. For once, Ahsoka was grateful for Vader's fierce and evil reputation across the galaxy as one of the chief slavers and overseers. Even if Jabba couldn't trust that Ahsoka would actually negotiate with him about more valuable sentient chattel, surely Darth Vader wouldn't care if they won.

"I like you, little togruta," Jabba declared with a laugh. "You can use the lanes."

Ahsoka hadn't been called "little togruta" in a while. It had been common in her teenage years, right behind Skywalker's brat. She could hardly be called little now, though. Even for a togruta female, she fell on the taller end of her species. But Ahsoka got the feeling the Hutt didn't mean her physical size. 'Little' meant he didn't take her seriously. 'Little' meant he didn't believe she could accomplish what she claimed even with the backing of Darth Vader. 'Little' meant he was humoring them because he was bored and thought the fallout between some humanoids fighting over territory might be interesting.

Good. That was exactly what Ahsoka was counting on.

* * *

**AN: **So a few things with this one...

1) I know that in legends material the deadline to become a padawan was age 13, but I'm not prescribing to that. Canon seems to indicate that initiates didn't become padawans until there were older. In fact, the Clone Wars "movie" has Ahsoka pondering whether or not she was too young to be a padawan. Now, fair point, she was originally intended to be twelve and then she was "re-aged" to fourteen (ish) but since it's official she was fourteen that is evidence enough to me to signal that maybe thirteen was not the deadline to be chosen or assigned as a padawan. Again even if there is some argument that it was (Besides Anakin because he is just a special damn case in a category of his own), this AU is ignoring that. I'm just saying this because I know someone is going to read that and try to correct me, and thank you. Really. But I assure you, I know all this. That was a conscious story choice.

2) Clone Wars is a "kid's show" but man there were some episodes that were really harrowing to think about. The Zygerria arc? The Trodashon hunter arc? The fact that they were comfortable letting a fourteen-year-old girl fight on the frontlines of a war no matter how skilled. All the ways everything could have gone wrong in the war is frightening and yet another story that I plan to write... Ish, anyway. It won't just be about that.

3) Next chapter we get to stick in Vader's head for a while and I was quite pleased with how those chapters turned out when I went back and read them.


	58. Anticipation

**Chapter Fifty-Eight: Anticipation**

Of eight Empire Days past, Vader had been in physical attendance at a total of five celebrations. If it had been up to him, he wouldn't have gone to any of them. But the Emperor was all about grand shows of his power and strength, so without a viable reason not to, he was forced to grudgingly attend and listen to the dull presentations of senators, other high ranking officials, and the Emperor himself.

Today on the ninth Empire Day, despite the Emperor's insistence that the main celebrations take place on Naboo, Vader's experience was more or less the same. To add insult to injury, the long stream of speeches and performances took place on the same steps of Theed Palace in front of the same long pathway that Padmé once stood as queen to celebrate fighting off those that tried to oppress Naboo and their people. The same place where her funeral march began. The same place the Naboo would have gathered to commemorate the former queen and senator's life if not for the Emperor's deliberate interference to desecrate her legacy by superseding it with a celebration of terror that she'd openly spoken out against and defied when she lived.

Vader had enough self-control and self-restraint now that the Emperor's machinations, while infuriating, also brought him a fair amount of amusement and reluctant respect toward the man. But that was a sentiment he kept to himself, behind a not entirely false thick shield of fury, hate, and the dark side that the Emperor expected from him. The façade didn't take much forethought to maintain after years of playing the delicate game of deception.

In truth, Vader was filled with an anticipation that was both eager and anxious as the time came closer and closer to Palpatine's address. Because it was during that address that Ahsoka's attack and the resulting siege of Naboo would commence. Even after she'd explained it to him, Vader wasn't entirely sure how in the universe Ahsoka managed to smooth talk Jabba into allowing the use of his hyperspace lanes. But having the Hutt as a temporary, if cautious, ally necessitated the revision of their initial plan.

The original plan was to use Jabba's defeat to draw the nearby Imperial forces to Tatooine to quell the revolt before it was beyond the Empire's ability to effectively contain. Undoubtedly, when the Empire did arrive, they would underestimate the resources of the Liberty Resistance and the Rebel Alliance. With Jabba's territory under their control and the gained hyperspace lanes, Ahsoka's forces would effectively cut off any reinforcements the Empire might send. Then, with her newly acquired hyperspace lanes, the Rebellion would lead an attack on Naboo that would force Vader to flee with the Emperor in tow. Without a sufficient way to quantify or qualify the strength of their opponents, the Empire would be forced to reinforce strongholds much more critical and more strategic than some backwater planets in Hutt Space and a Mid-Rim planet residing just on the edge of the border of the Outer Rim, a planet whose only real significance was sentiment.

Now, the plan was still the same, but rather than the Liberty Resistance servicing the Rebellion, the Rebellion's attack would service the Liberty Resistance in destroying Jabba the Hutt.

"_How devious of you, Jedi," _he'd said when Ahsoka relayed her intentions to the Hutt. That was long after he'd finished giving her a very long and stern reprimand for the idiocy and paramount recklessness of infiltrating Jabba's palace as a slave of all things. Off the top of his head, he could list a dozen things that could have gone wrong without backup, the least of which, in his opinion, was death. _Any_ of which would have been enough to go to Tatooine himself and burn the Hutt and the planet to the ground. Ahsoka had taken it in stride, a smile playing at her lips.

"_I didn't know you had such cunning in you. You might make a Sith yet," _he'd continued.

Ahsoka had shrugged and said, "_I only assured him he'd get his fair share and suggested what that might be. Never made any guarantees, and it's not my fault he didn't demand them. And well, you know. I'm no Jedi."_

If there was ever a time that Vader believed that about her—as she adjusted her plan against the Empire to take advantage of Jabba's greed and turn against him later—now was the time.

With access to the hyperspace lanes, Ahsoka's forces could launch a surprise attack on Naboo. While ground forces and security had been dramatically heightened since the incident on Eriadu, no known navy in the galaxy could match the Empire's might. No known navy would dare to even take the Empire on, especially not on Empire Day. So the aerial and space support had been broken down to a bare minimum skeleton crew of the Empire's best and brightest. Their best and brightest who didn't have a fraction of the training and skill that he knew Ahsoka made sure her pilots had. Quick and agile, she'd use them to destroy the three star destroyers in orbit before bringing her own smaller, but faster destroyers to capture the planet.

He and Ahsoka discussed these tactics with each other for hours at a time during their frequent strategy communications over the years. How to use the strength of the Empire, to overwhelm with as many weapons, destroyers, and fighters—the bigger, the better—against them. They'd gone over schematics, hundreds of scenarios, and the ever-popular _Tarkin's doctrine_. She took back what they figured out together and incorporated it into how she trained her soldiers. He took back what they learned and incorporated it into the designs for the fleet he'd had funded and built for her. The plan was as close to foolproof as they were ever going to get. If there was a time to test it, it was now. Now, before the Emperor was too powerful to overcome without even graver sacrifices.

Still, even with the odds stacked better in Ahsoka's favor, Vader couldn't help being apprehensive. It wasn't that he doubted her or her ability, but these things weren't without their risks. He'd gone through as many tremendous pains, maybe more, as he had with the twins to keep her hidden from the attention of the Empire. Now that she was about to expose herself, Vader was concerned, to say the least. He knew from personal experience that to have the attention of Palpatine wasn't a favor one should seek.

"_I'll be safe here on Tatooine directing the attack. Besides, it's a good plan. It'll work," _she'd said, dismissing his concerns.

Before he could point out that they thought their original plan would work and that already many things had gone wrong, she continued. _"You're the one that needs to be careful. My rebels aren't going to make things easy on you. Many of them genuinely want to see you and the Emperor dead. They're going to be shooting to kill. I can't blame them." _

Her tone had been somewhat solemn, as though she were just stating a matter of fact. Vader was easily able to see through to her concern. He supposed she was just as unable to help her concern for him despite knowing his abilities as he was unable to help his concern for her. Thus, instead of getting angry at it like he might have in the past, he smirked and said, _"Going to take a lot more than a few new hotshot pilots with no experience to kill me."_

She'd smiled in return. _"I'm going to worry anyway."_

"Lord Vader."

Vader snapped out of his thoughts and turned to Palpatine.

"You seem… apprehensive. What troubles you?"

Vader didn't immediately answer. Instead, he turned back to some senator he didn't recognize giving their address as he contemplated what his answer would be. He decided to go with the truth.

"I feel as though something is not quite right." And it wasn't. "I would have felt much better about all this if you had allowed me to take a more active part in overseeing the security."

Palpatine laughed. "You worry too much, old friend. Such minuscule tasks are beneath you."

"Yes, Master," Vader replied, directing his attention back to the rest of the addresses.

Nine had a special significance in Naboo culture, representing completion and perfection, and the senators had done their research. In their speeches, they played up the importance and symbolism of the ninth Empire Day celebrations happening on Naboo. A representation, many said, that they could let go of the fear of instability and chaos, remnants of which remained from the flawed Republic, and look forward to a bright future now that the Emperor's rule was cemented in history.

However, the number nine could also have a darker significance in Naboo culture. It could also represent an ending. Finality. The senators he knew to have sympathies toward or whose planets were secretly part of the rebellion cleverly weaved those darker meanings into their speeches. In anticipation of the impending exposure of the Rebellion, the Fulcrum, and their official declaration of war against the Empire.

Admittedly, it was one of the more interesting Empire Days that Vader had to sit through.

Finally, the time came for the Emperor to give his speech. Before he got up, though, he patted Vader's hand in a friendly gesture and said, "Have faith in the Empire we've built together, and take the time to bask in our accomplishments."

The man then went up to the podium to begin his speech while the careful façade of hate and anger that Vader had concocted suddenly wasn't much of a façade anymore. Another of Palpatine's subtle manipulations, seemingly benign. In reality? It was to remind Vader that for all the part he played in the success of the Empire, he'd ultimately failed the personal reasons he'd decided to help Palpatine build his Empire in the first place. Not to mention that Vader knew full well that Palpatine didn't include him in ownership of the Empire. He was nothing more than a tool that Palpatine had used as a means to an end.

It would be so easy right now to cut the Emperor down as he had his back turned while delivering his message to Naboo and to the broader galaxy. And the dark side eagerly whispered in his mind, urging him on. But that would create a lot more problems than it solved. It was too public, for one, and would make him look like little more than a murderer and usurper. Also, he didn't have enough control over the Imperial Military.

The war would allow Vader to get the right leadership in place. Military leadership that was loyal to him, hated the Republic, and liked the idea of the Empire but hated Palpatine's rule. So when Vader finally turned on the Emperor, he'd face little resistance from the military. He could then use their newfound loyalty to force the Joint Chiefs and any opposition that survived the war to cooperate rather than mounting a foolhardy attempt to challenge him for the rights of the Empire. Only once he had that power would it be feasible to kill the Emperor. And with the information about Operation Contingency that Ahsoka's Stinger Crew gathered, they would know who to detain or outright kill right after the Emperor's demise.

Vader sensed a shift in the Force. A tilt. Not necessarily in his or Ahsoka's favor but the beginning of a pushback against all the efforts Palpatine had made to cement his power over the years. And that's when Vader knew Ahsoka's attack had begun.

With the skies of Naboo so empty and clear, it didn't take long for people to notice that a conflict was going on above them and to stop paying attention to their Emperor. Not that there was anything to pay attention to. The Emperor, too, had stopped his speech and was looking up in the air.

Vader wished he could watch, but he had a role to play. He stood and turned to the other military personnel behind him, zeroing in on the sector Moff who was frantically speaking to a small hologram on his comm.

"Governor, what's the report?" he asked without preamble.

Before the Moff could answer, the Admiral in the flickering hologram said, "The Rebels. They came from out of nowhere. And they keep coming. We don't have—"

The image flickered and then suddenly winked out. Vader didn't have to look into the sky to know that one of their destroyers had sabotaged. In the time it took Vader to assess the situation, the Royal Guard had already surrounded Palpatine and was starting him on one of the many escape routes they'd planned well in advance. Vader followed, falling into step next to the Emperor.

"Only the Rebellion would have the audacity to attack and cause chaos, promoting their terror on a day committed to commemorating peace, order, and security," Vader grumbled. Hopefully, it sounded as though he actually believed it.

Before the Emperor could respond, they turned the corner to find their escape route blocked by a group of men and women, both human and gungan, all carrying weapons. Behind them where two tanks and a canon, somehow having both the sleek, elegant designs the humans of Naboo favored as well as the trademark designs of the gungans, Naboo's native sentient beings.

Vader reached out with the Force, knowing that the Naboo weren't foolish enough to think that blocking one of their paths would impede their escape. Sure enough, as he used the force to check the vibrations of their surroundings and get a brief flash of their perimeter, he confirmed his suspicions.

Vader knew without a doubt that Ahsoka would have warned him about the Naboo if she'd known. She'd been complaining for years that she could never get any headway with the Naboo because of how underfoot they were kept by the Empire. It was oozingly poetic, therefore, that the Naboo planned their own rebellion on Empire Day.

Their rebellion was, first, revenge for effectively forbidding their yearly celebration and memorial for one of their beloved queens, a woman who would have ardently and indignantly opposed everything Empire Day represented. Second, their rebellion was a way to honor the legacy that the queen left behind by fighting back against their oppressor even when the odds were against them. Vader might have been impressed if that didn't mean he now had to actually fight two separate forces to protect Palpatine. The fact that Ahsoka had to trick Jabba into helping her should have been an omen that his part of their conspiracy wouldn't go according to plan either.

"They've surrounded us on all sides," Vader informed Palpatine, stepping in front of the guard and lighting his lightsaber. He hoped his reluctance didn't show.

These were _her_ people. The people she'd loved and fought for at the expense of her own personal happiness. It was one thing to have to cut down rebels and insurgents. It was quite another to have to do it when doing so would feel like hurting Padmé again. Just after he'd made a promise to her that he wouldn't make the mistakes of the past again. Yet, in a roundabout way, doing this was ensuring he wasn't making the mistakes of the past. If he didn't cut them down, if for right now he didn't secure the Emperor's safety, all the years of covert planning would be in vain.

Besides, what was committing to one more thing he really didn't want to in the grand scheme of things?

Thus, his reluctance shifted into fury. Fury that the Naboo would force him to do this. Fury that if they'd only trusted Ahsoka when she'd attempted to reach out to them that this might not be necessary. Fury at Palpatine for igniting their resistance at all by stomping all over his dead wife's legacy. Fury at the realization that Palpatine had suspected, at the very least, that the Naboo would plan something like this and put Vader in this position.

He wrapped the dark side around himself in protective layers, embracing it like the constant companion—both enemy and friend—that it had always been. Then he launched forward to attack, triggering part of the Royal Guard to begin shooting while the other part took Palpatine for cover. Vader channeled even more underlying frustration at Palpatine as he cut down the Naboo rebels blocking their escape route.

For all that the man pretended to be helpless, Vader knew his master was a more than formidable fighter. But like Vader wore a mask, both physically and figurative, to maintain an image, so did his master. The image of a misguided and paranoid old man who had the best of intentions but caved under pressure and fear for the galaxy, an image that had much of the loyalist senators and some of the rebellion leaders fooled that Palpatine might be able to be reasoned with and their conflict resolved peacefully.

When he was done, blood, body parts, and scorch marks marred the beautiful streets and buildings.

"This path is clear. Continue your planned escape route and get the Emperor off this planet and back to Imperial Center," Vader ordered to the rest of the Royal Guard. "I will ensure they do not follow."

Though the Emperor appeared grave, Vader got the underlying sense that this was precisely what the man wanted, reinforcing Vader's suspicions that he'd known about Naboo's planned insurgency. He'd get the man's thoughts on the broader Rebellion at another time.

Finally, Palpatine said, "We will discuss our course of action back on Imperial Center, my friend."

"Yes, Master," Vader replied, using every ounce of restraint he had not to make an attempt to strike the man where he stood. It was devastatingly tempting. It would also possibly lead to his death and derail all his and Ahsoka's plotting.

With that, the Emperor allowed the guard to lead him to safety and hopefully off the planet. A glance into the sky told him there was still one Imperial star destroyer in the atmosphere. They'd likely be able to get him out before Ahsoka could send more forces and cut off the planet from the rest of the Empire. For now, he'd deal with the Naboo and ensure that the Emperor made it off-world. The quickest and most effective way to do that was to have a chat with Queen Améla herself.

* * *

Not much to say other than that (yet). I'm literally running out the door to get my braces redone.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, please. I appreciate and enjoy all your insights.


	59. Améla

**Chapter Fifty-Nine: Améla**

It would certainly be easy to pass off this insurgency as the workings of some isolated group, but Vader had been married to one of Naboo's former queens. There was almost nothing that happened on Naboo of this magnitude that their queen didn't know about. He fought his way through a path to the palace, not killing every insurgent he came across, but probably killing more than necessary in his ire and definitely injuring more. To his credit, he wasn't going out of his way to help the Imperial ground forces that they were trying to subdue.

Once he was in the palace, it didn't take him long to fight through the chaos to where the Naboo Royal Guard and the queen's handmaidens had holed themselves up in the throne room. He assumed they used a diversion to keep most of the action away from there for the time being because he met no resistance from either side of the fight. The only opposition he was met with was massive, wooden, barricaded doors, which he easily blasted through with Force.

The blasters of the handmaidens were already raised, but before they could shoot, a wave of Vader's hand had the weapons flying from their grasps.

"This need not end in violence," Vader said.

Unsurprisingly, Naboo's teenage queen wasn't buying that.

"Your master and the Empire you've both built have left us with little choice in the matter," she replied in the practiced monotone that the queens of Naboo favored.

"Do not force me to kill you."

Because Force knew killing their queen was something the Naboo would never forgive him for, no matter what plan he and Ahsoka had in place to rid them of the Emperor forever.

"Then you will be forced," the Queen declared defiantly.

Vader gripped his lightsaber, his temper beginning to get the better of him. So much so that if there was a better option, he couldn't think of it. So, he paused. He had a while before the violence made its way to this part of the palace, if it did. And as talented as he knew Naboo's Royal Guard and the handmaidens to be, they were no threat to him.

He shed some of the thick layers of the dark side from around him, imploring the Force for an option that didn't necessitate more death than he'd already wrought on the Naboo in their foolhardy attempt. The goal was to make sure the Emperor got off-planet. The feat would have been easy if he'd been able to go with the Emperor himself, but the Naboo insurgency made that impossible for him. Thus, the only way to absolutely ensure the Emperor's survival was for the queen to call off the forces that would no doubt be in pursuit of him.

Without the dark side fogging his mental faculties, the solution became apparent.

"Allow me to have a one on one discussion with your queen," Vader said as the palace shook with an explosion.

The captain of her guard immediately began to protest that, but the queen held up her hand to silence him. As the Queen set her hand back in her lap, she made a nearly imperceptible gesture. A gesture that Vader would have missed if he hadn't been familiar with the ways that Padmé and her handmaidens communicated with each other when they switched places. The gesture gave away that the one dressed as the queen was a decoy.

He should have known.

He observed the handmaidens, looking for the one that would respond. One with dark brown eyes and dark blond hair pulled into an elegant braided knot at the back of her head caught Vader's attention, standing just in the decoy's line of sight. She frowned only slightly, breaking the practiced passive mask of the handmaidens before again schooling her features.

Vader pointed to her and said, "Believe me, Your Highness. If I'd wanted to kill you, all of you would have been dead not long after I'd walked into the room. You'd do well to send away your entourage, or I'll ensure our one-on-one discussion myself."

What would be the death of a few more Naboo at his hands today?

If they were surprised that Vader figured out who the true queen was, no one showed it. Instead, the teenage girl stepped forward in her handmaiden's outfit, colored the exact shade of red the Naboo used to represent the mourning of someone who died an unnatural death. The color represented senseless violence. Unnecessary bloodshed. A color Palpatine favored in Imperial décor and his Imperial robes.

"Leave us," she ordered.

Her captain began to argue, but the girl said without the usual monotone of Naboo queens, "That was an order. And he's right. We are all well aware of Lord Vader's reputation. If he wanted me dead, I would be dead. All of us would be. I'm curious as to why that is."

Reluctantly, everyone filed out the room, maintaining the act that the decoy was the true queen.

Once they were alone, Vader didn't waste any time.

"You have to call off your pilots."

The girl laughed. "I'm sure you would want us to make sure that your emperor escapes unscathed."

"You must," Vader said. "The fate of the galaxy depends on it. If you follow your actions through to their possible trajectory, there will be no galactic government left to reform. The galaxy will descend into true chaos that not even the Senate will be able to set right again."

The Queen maintained a carefully indifferent expression. The only reason Vader knew she was surprised was that he sensed the emotion from her in the Force.

"What are you talking about?"

Vader paused, apprehensive about the revelation he was about to make. There were precious few that were part of his inner circle. That was who knew about his connection to the Rebellion and the plot to depose of Palpatine. If two people could be called a few. Ahsoka, first, followed by Sabé. The only reason the latter managed it was because she'd proven her trustworthiness and devotion to Padmé. Whereas Ahsoka had Breha, Diya, Rex, and Obi-wan to know that she was allied with him and many more who knew her Rebellion ties. With apparent and hidden enemies on both sides of the conflict, though, Vader didn't have Ahsoka's luxury. But something in the Force was telling him to let Naboo's queen in the know. At least about some things.

"You've heard of the Fulcrum," Vader stated.

"Yes."

Of course, she had. What kind of queen would she be otherwise? Whether she thought of Ahsoka's alias as a powerful pirate or crime boss or the leader of a rebellion, Vader couldn't tell. There were many rumors circulating about Ahsoka.

"She will destroy the Emperor. And I will help her reshape the Empire to something that aligns more with your ideals. Something that more aligns with…" Vader trailed off as something about the intensity of the young queen's gaze triggered familiarity in him. "Something that more aligns with the ideals your aunt championed."

Vader hardly recognized the teenager considering how different she looked from the little girl he'd met twelve years ago. The younger of Padmé's, at the time, two nieces. Pooja, he recalled. Following the footsteps of her aunt, it seemed.

"How do you know that?" Améla—Pooja—asked.

"Senator Amidala was a friend of mine once," Vader answered vaguely.

Pooja looked him up and down in doubt.

"You have no reason to trust me," Vader admitted. "But if you've gotten this far, you're an intelligent young woman. You know how one of your own rose to power to reshape the Republic from the inside for his own gain. That it would be much more stable to destroy his government the same way and by the same subtle means."

"You're asking me to allow my people to continue to suffer under the Empire's thumb. Every day they erode and erase our honored traditions, continue to erode and destroy the home of the gungans, silently whisk away dissidents and their entire families—men, women, _and _children—to never be seen again while our puppet Senator parrots the Emperor's empty platitudes."

"I know. The Naboo are not the only ones who know suffering under the Emperor's subjugation." Vader let the implication linger before he continued speaking. "But the Rebel Alliance under the Fulcrum's leadership has a plan that requires allowing the Emperor off this planet alive. If you don't let him escape, you'll bring the entire might of the Empire here, and not even the Rebellion will be able to protect you. But you let him go, and there will be bigger problems for the Empire to deal with besides a Mid-Rim planet whose only importance is sentiment, despite the embarrassment losing this planet will cause."

Pooja looked at him, her emotions a conflict of fiery indignation at what he was asking and resignation that he might be right.

Finally, she said, "The only reason I'm doing this is that the last thing Naboo needs is the full might of the Empire's navy upon us if we can avoid it. That and because whatever the Rebellion's plot, it's only aided our efforts thus far today by helping get rid of those destroyers. It has nothing to do with trusting you."

"I'd question your competency if you thought you could. I trust I don't need to tell you that to ensure your people's freedom and the Fulcrum's long-term success that this conversation never happened."

Pooja picked up her comm and said, "Only shoot to disable the Emperor's escape envoy. My intel says that space battle is the Rebellion, and I doubt they can handle the full might of the Empire. But if we can capture the Emperor alive, we gain a negotiating tool against the rest of the Empire."

Pooja waited for a series of confirmations from her comm before she cut the communication and looked at him, reservation clear in her expression.

"I sincerely hope you know what you're talking about," she said to him.

Vader didn't answer as he turned to leave the room.

"Where will you go?" Pooja called out.

Vader paused long enough to say, "I, Your Highness, have to execute my grand escape from the Rebellion Alliance's surprise attack. I owe you my thanks for your planet's own rebel attack in making it much more believable a necessity for me."

"Let me assist you then," Pooja said.

Her emotions were back under control as her voice changed back into the indifferent monotone that she'd been trained to use as queen. She made her way to the back corner to the right of the throne room and pushed on a specific spot in the corner. Part of the wall suddenly gave, revealing a secret path.

"Queen Amidala had this built during the reconstruction of Theed after the invasion of the Trade Federation. A way for future queens to escape and seek aid in the event of an emergency. It will get you around the bulk of the fighting and to the palace hanger," she said, gesturing for him to come to where she was.

"Your concern for my well-being is flattering," Vader drawled sarcastically. "But I have no need for your assistance. I'll find my way off-planet just fine."

"You mistake this as an act of generosity or kindness toward you. It's my people I am concerned about. I do not trust you not to kill indiscriminately as you make your way off this planet in keeping up whatever act you have to maintain," Pooja pointed out. "I aim to preserve as many of my people's lives as possible despite accepting that the loss of life is natural in battle."

That may have been so, but it was also a practical decision. In the case that this rebellion failed, there was the possibility that the blame could be shifted to an isolated group separate from the crown. The fact that she helped him escape could lend credence to the possibility. If Pooja was anything like her aunt, though, she'd be reluctant to shift such heavy blame onto her people, even if it meant being allowed to continue serving them another day to escape the grip of the Empire. Even if she could use helping him escape to her advantage, it wouldn't save her queenship from the Empire. A rebellion by her own people happening on her watch would be seen as a sign of a weak ruler. The Emperor would probably have her removed for a puppet queen, much like their puppet senator, to take her place.

With nothing more to say to the young queen, Vader made his way into the tunnel and toward the hanger. It could be a trap. But if the queen was as concerned about her people as she seemed to be, she knew that to do so would bode ill to her primary aim.

He followed the winding tunnel until he came upon its end. All it took was the careful push into a hidden crevice to get the wall to slide open and for him to arrive in the hanger where the queen had graciously allowed the Emperor's envoy to land for the week of celebrations. It was now a battlefield. Not just between Naboo's insurgency and the Imperial ground troops left behind with nowhere to retreat unless they got off-planet, but also the Rebel Alliance's forces. At some point during his talks with the Queen, Ahsoka's forces had broken ground on Naboo.

Naturally, it didn't take long for either group of rebels to spot Vader and turn their focus to him as the greater threat. He'd been prepared for the occurrence, though, and raised a Force shield, deflected the bolts that managed to get through with his lightsaber, and headed for a ship. Even if he weren't in on this plan, the battle would have been beyond even his ability to salvage, and it wouldn't have been worth salvaging. The rebels had overrun the planet, probably having captured the garrison and the Imperial base that was a couple of dozen kilometers from Theed, and the people were sympathetic to the Rebellion cause. He was powerful, resourceful, but not infallible. He had the scar from Ahsoka that proved it.

Once he'd cleared enough of the rebels, he calculated the distance to the nearest Imperial shuttle. He jumped for it, landing on the open ramp and making his way immediately to the cockpit. As he prepared to take off, he heard the distinct sound of the rebels shooting the outside of his shuttle and looked around to see if the ship had any type of shielding. It did. Limitedly. These shuttles were almost as lousy as the standard TIEs that the fleet used, except they had functioning hyperdrives and life support capabilities. Life support that wouldn't last very long, but that mattered little given the functionality of his suit.

He turned on the shields before he finished the startup sequence. Then, he flew out the hanger and away from the Theed Palace. But that wasn't the end of his troubles. Not long after seeing a group of rebel fighters on his tail in the scanners, Vader figured that the ground forces got word to their pilots and destroyers that he'd just escaped the planet. And when Ahsoka assured him that she'd trained them well, she hadn't been exaggerating. But rather than causing him to worry, an excited thrill coursed through him at the prospect of a challenge as he sped away from his pursuers, keeping just out the range of their weapons so they wouldn't be able to hit him. As he did so, he focused on looking for cracks in the Rebellion's defense to get through their blockade. He'd gotten past worse in the past, but he'd also been in better ships then.

He found an opportunity to get through the blockade. Vader prepared to take it. His ship jolted, though, and began to be pulled back toward one of the three Rebellion destroyers in orbit.

"Tractor beam," he muttered.

They weren't impossible to escape, but doing so meant killing his engines. They would probably last just long enough for a short hyperspace jump away from Naboo. But it was either that or potentially allow himself to get pulled in and then have to escape afterward.

With little choice in the matter, he prepared to make the maneuver that might potentially help him escape the tractor beam. That was if his shuttle didn't explode in the attempt. Then he remembered Jakku. He hadn't given the insufficiency of the Force inhibitors that had been used on him much thought since then. Despite Ahsoka's insistence otherwise, he dismissed that they didn't cut him off completely like they were supposed to as faulty mechanisms. But perhaps… This was not the opportune time to experiment with a new Force power. But if his Force abilities were enough to warp the mechanics of technology explicitly made to cut beings off from the Force, then perhaps it was possible to use the Force to disrupt the mechanics and makeup of the beam steadily pulling him in.

He expanded the Force outward to form something similar to the type of shields he summoned to protect himself from physical attacks, but more intangible than that. Something that was more like a disruptive breeze that could change the angle of a fired shot if not accounted for. He strained some with discomfort and struggle that always came when trying out a new power. If not for the life support suit regulating his breathing, he might have stopped to take a deep breath. Instead, he took a moment before he pushed the shield out further out and around the ship.

He lurched forward and then back into his seat at the sudden release of the pulling, his shuttle jetting forward, away from the destroyer. But not without damage. He felt it in the way the ship shuddered, though that didn't stop it from making the jump to hyperspace. What it did mean was that after only a few hours and maybe only two hours out from the coordinates to the nearest stationed Imperial outpost, his ship suddenly lurched out of hyperspace and began to careen right into the gravitational pull of a very familiar planet.

"Why the hell is it _always_ kriffing _Tatooine_?" Vader muttered to himself as he began to crash-land the ship. He ignored the logical part of his mind that said Naboo's and Tatooine's star systems were relatively close together. Just a few hours hyperspace trip between them.

He landed in the middle of the desert, and once he was sure the sand was firm and steady—the absolute last thing he needed was for his ship to sink—he grabbed the comm he used solely to contact Ahsoka. She answered voice-only. He was surprised she picked up at all, considering that she was remotely coordinating an attack to take a planet and was getting ready to turn on the Hutt that enabled the entire thing.

"_Vader,"_ she said quietly, clearly not totally alone.

"You," Vader breathed, "are not going to _believe_ where I crash-landed."

* * *

**AN: **1) Me and HtTaE going back and forth.

Me: Vader is not going to Tatooine. That wasn't the plan.  
HtTaE: He's going to Tatooine.  
Me: No. No, he's not.  
HtTaE: Think of the trajectory you have planned after this. Vader doesn't go to Tatooine. It doesn't happen. How else do you plan to manage it?  
Me: No! That's final  
Me: *finally getting to this chapter and mentally outlining the contents of the next few chapters...* Fuck. Vader's going to Tatooine.  
HtTaE: I told you...  
Me: Shut up.  
HtTaE: Look on the bright side. The readers will like it.

2) It is not a spoiler to say that Pooja and Vader are eventually going to have the same contentious relationship in this universe that Vader has with Leia in canon.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, please. I appreciate your feedback and insights.


	60. Memories

**Chapter Sixty: Memories**

Vader couldn't say he was surprised that things had gone so off the rails as far as his placement in their plans. He shouldn't have been. He'd expected something to inevitably go wrong with Ahsoka's end, but Vader hadn't contemplated in all their planning that the Naboo had planned their own rebellion. That he'd get separated from the Emperor and have to find his own way off-planet. Indeed, he hadn't planned on ending up on his home planet again. But when had anything _ever_ gone according to plan when Vader was involved? Apparently, that was a curse that followed him even from his former life.

But in some ways, Vader supposed it was fortunate. With Ahsoka stuck in Jabba's palace and the slug, wisely, not letting her out of his or his lackeys' sight in anticipation of her deception, it necessitated that someone else infiltrate the palace and deactivate the minefield. He'd tasked Rex with the mission right before Vader comm'd to inform her of his crash landing ("How is it that you always crash the ship?" Ahsoka had teased). It became a no-brainer that if Vader was going to be here for the time being, who better to aid in the task?

Vader sensed Rex approach long before his former commander knocked on the landing ramp of the ship to signal that he had arrived and made his way into the ship.

"General," Rex said, poking his head hesitantly into the cockpit when he arrived.

"Haven't been that in a long time," Vader replied. Not technically anyway. He supposed his function in the Empire could be comparable to that of a high general.

He stood from his seat and turned to face the former clone trooper, getting the feeling that the man wasn't sure how to act around him. A wariness was in his demeanor that reminded Vader of when he'd been reunited with Ahsoka, and she'd struggled to reconcile his new self with his former self. The problem wasn't Vader's to sort out.

"Sir," Rex said, handing Vader a brown satchel off his back.

Right. His disguise. Darth Vader certainly couldn't be seen running around Tatooine helping the Rebellion and the Liberty Resistance.

Vader wordlessly took the bag and dropped it in the middle of the small standing area only of the shuttle and before the ramp. He finally discarded his mask and helmet, having decided to wait until the very last minute to get rid of the contraption. Tatooine was a harsh climate for someone with a compromised respiratory system despite all the progress toward healing that he'd made. In short order, he'd discarded the cape, and the shoulder plates and armor, and his utility belt. Then he undid the metal locks and clasps on the steel-plated, knee-length combat boots and temporarily removed them so he could take the rest of the suit off.

He cursed to himself as he went through the tedious process. What in the galaxy had the Emperor been thinking when he'd made this? For it to require so much exertion to put on and take off that Vader would never want to take it off? Even in the privacy of his own quarters? Or maybe, he'd foreseen Vader having a more gruesome injury than the one he'd escaped Mustafar with if Ahsoka hadn't intervened…

Vader shook the thought from his head. For all of the conniving of the Emperor, Vader didn't imagine that the man planned on the young apprentice he'd worked so diligently to procure to be so severely crippled after becoming a Sith. Or maybe Sidious had? Perhaps he'd always planned on finding a way to cripple Vader and keep him powerful enough to terrorize the galaxy but never enough to overtake his master. Vader pushed the thought from his head again. There was no telling what went through the mind of his master at any given time. And frankly, Sidious' reasoning behind the suit mattered little in the grand scheme of things. Vader would redesign the damn thing when he was emperor.

His disguise turned out to be that of a ubese bounty hunter, a common enough figure around these parts that it wouldn't arouse suspicion, though Vader was probably a little tall for one. He put his boots back on first and then began to wrap himself in the brown, beige, and green wraps, trousers, and tunics of the outfit. He paused halfway through putting on one of the gloves of the gear, feeling Rex's eyes on him.

"What?" Vader asked curtly, turning a dark look at the clone.

Rex startled in surprise, which said a lot about his state of mind if what he knew about the man was still true. Finally, he settled back into a more attentive posture and replied, "Nothing really. Just… Well, it really is you under there."

"The man you knew as Anakin Skywalker is long dead," Vader said.

"With all due respect, sir, everything else is telling me a different story."

Vader briefly lamented that the lack of more soldiers in the Imperial military with Rex's candor. Most of the recruits nowadays were a bunch of blubbering fools from various parts of the galaxy who were hardly taught to shoot a blaster straight without their hands shaking in fear, let alone how to intelligently, competently, and respectfully disagree with a superior officer.

"What's everything else?" Vader decided to ask.

"Well, Ahsoka wouldn't be as devoted to you as she is otherwise. And she damn sure wouldn't let you near her younglings if Anakin Skywalker were really as dead and gone as you say he is, replaced by whatever monster you've got the galaxy fooled into thinking you are for the sake of not incurring the Emperor's suspicion."

Vader wondered if he'd be able to convince Rex to be his commander again and send another guard for Ahsoka in his place. Rex always had a startling understanding of the way Vader's—his former self's that was—mind worked. Sometimes catching on to his plans and line of reasoning even before Ahsoka or Obi-wan had. He imagined he'd hear protests not just from Ahsoka, but from the commander himself.

He chose not to answer the other man's observation as he finished pulling on the gloves. He waited until he'd put on the ubese breath mask to speak next.

"What was Ahsoka's objective for all this?"

"For us to somehow get to Jabba's control room and deactivate the minefield so the Liberty Resistance can lay siege to the palace. She's been looking for an opening to do it herself, but Jabba has eyes all over her. Our disguises are that of a pair of mercenaries who frequently work together in Jabba's employ that were sent to find the resistance's new camp," Rex explained.

"What happened to them?" Vader asked.

"Diya and the other Resistance leaders put a blaster bolt between their eyes and burned the bodies. Either way, no one except a few trusted Resistance members, and now you, know about their deaths. So we shouldn't have any problems getting into Jabba's palace. Solo didn't when he took Ahsoka in."

"Solo?"

"Smuggler kid that owes Diya a life debt as far as I can gather. Not particularly on good terms with Jabba either as far as I know."

Vader nodded. If a smuggler could get in and out without raising Jabba's suspicions, so could they. Finally, he put on the mask and stuffed the rest of his suit and his lightsaber into the satchel, tying the bag as tightly and securely as possible before throwing it over his back. Rex followed his lead by putting on his own mask and then extending a blaster rifle to Vader. Vader eyed the weapon, and Rex daringly cocked his head in a manner as though to ask, "You think you can handle this?" Vader promptly took the weapon from his former commander's hand and strapped it over his shoulder.

Together they exited the shuttle. Once they were a good enough distance from the ship, Vader raised his hand and called upon the destructive power of the dark side of the Force. Then he gripped onto the ship with it and began to curl his fingers. The ship crumpled in on itself, sparking with electricity the more it collapsed. Finally, there was an explosion, and the ship combusted, smoke rising high into the afternoon Tatooine skies.

He relinquished his hold and climbed up the ramp of the ship Rex had waiting for them. Ahsoka's ship, _The Resolve_. The ship he'd given her nearly seven years ago to make her way to Alderaan when their plan to overthrow the Emperor had been little more than a collection of back and forth conversations.

"Come," he directed, briefly pausing at the sound of his own voice through the breath mask. "There's not a lot of time before Jabba turns on Ahsoka. Once she's run the Empire out from around these parts, she will have outlived her usefulness as far as he's concerned and so will have the Rebellion."

"It's going to take a lot more than some desert slug to take out Ahsoka. You know that," Rex said.

That might have been true, but Vader was not in the mood to test opposing forces right then. He pushed the ship to its top speed, knowing the direction to Jabba's palace in the vast expanse of the desert even though it had been over a decade since his foot had touched the sand. A trip that would have taken days that included a few overnight stays in the intersecting towns took only a few hours in the ship. They landed just outside the main entrance to the palace.

As soon as Vader stepped off the ship, he sensed Jabba's snipers and mercenaries at the ready at various hidden spots outside the palace. There was only him and Rex, though. So long as they didn't do anything more than walk across the sand toward the entrance, they wouldn't shoot, even if they suspected the two to be unannounced trespassers. Many people came unannounced to do business with the Hutt, ill-advised as it might be. As far as anyone was concerned, two people were hardly a threat to the Hutt as outnumbered as they would be.

"I'm assuming you have a plan?" Rex asked as they headed to the entrance.

"Yes. Just follow my lead," Vader replied vaguely.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like your plan?"

A group of guards surrounded them at the entrance to escort them to Jabba. No doubt they'd learned from Ahsoka's earlier deception to get into the palace. Unfortunately for them, it wouldn't be enough.

No sooner than the doors behind them close did Vader decide to make his move. He closed his fist at his side, causing a wave that knocked all the guards surrounding them off their feet. While they were all caught off guard, he summoned his fury from the inconvenience that was being on his home planet again and used the Force to grip them all in a chokehold. Once the desperate gasping ceased, he released his hold, and the bodies fell to the ground with a loud thud.

"This is your plan?" Rex asked in a longsuffering tone.

Vader didn't answer. Instead, rather than continuing forward to the large archway at the end of the foyer that led to Jabba's throne room, he went up a curved stone staircase. It was the quickest way to get to the control room to deactivate the minefield. It also happened to be the route where they would meet the most resistance. None of them, however, were expecting Darth Vader, whether they knew they were encountering him or not.

He used the Force to knock dozens of guards off their feet, break necks, and deflect blaster bolts back at their shooters, Rex finishing off any that he may have missed with his rifle. He sensed an attack from behind and sidestepped a knife that buried itself in the eye of one of the attackers in front. Matters would have been made easier with his lightsaber, but the Emperor had spies everywhere. It would only take one glimpse of a red blade for word to possibly get back to him. Whenever the man got back to Coruscant anyway.

Growing more angry and more tired at the mercenaries sent their way, Vader released a powerful blast upon the enemies blocking their way. The attack stole the breath away from some, ripped holes in the chest of others, and killed or, at the very least, seriously injured the rest from the way they went flying into concrete, durasteel walls, and each other.

"Deactivate the minefield and get the Resistance here," Vader ordered, turning to the four remaining mercenaries who hadn't had the sense to run in the opposite direction.

Rex obeyed, running over dead or almost dead bodies to get to where he needed to go while Vader glared at the mercenaries. He briefly contemplated having a little fun with them before a nearby explosion shook the palace, followed by a series of identical sounding explosions. Knowing full well that when things started unexpectedly exploding there wasn't a lot of time to waste, Vader decided now wasn't the time to be creative. Instead, he waved a hand, and the mercenaries fell to the ground. He walked past them and back down to the foyer of the palace. There would be time to kill them later.

His instincts told him to go to the throne room where he found a very clearly pissed off Jabba and a very smug-looking Ahsoka. She was surrounded by eight pieces of scum with blasters pointed at her. She also, very wisely, was standing a few feet from the edge of the now covered rancor pit.

"_We had a deal," _the Hutt spat at Ahsoka.

"Our deal was that you would get your fair share. And while I made suggestions about what that could be, I never agreed to anything," Ahsoka said, steel permeating her tone. "Your reign of terror is over, Jabba."

"_Kill her."_

Ahsoka used the Force to pull the nearest mercenary, a rodian, to her before Jabba's order even fully left his mouth. She used him as a shield while simultaneously using his blaster to shoot two of the assailants on her right before they could get a shot in. Then she angled her hostage to take the blaster fire from her left before picking off two more and shoving the rodian's body into the rest. While they were distracted, Vader took the rifle that Rex had given him and killed the last three of the initial group.

He leapt into the middle of the room to stand back to back with her as more mercenaries, bounty hunters, and slavers filled the throne room from all sides. Everyone with sense and no loyalties to Jabba ran for cover.

"Well," Ahsoka said as she summoned another blaster into her left hand from one of the dead bounty hunters, "this brings back a lot of good memories."

"I think you and I have vastly different definitions of good," Vader replied as they both began shooting while using the Force to deflect the blaster fire of those quick enough to get off shots.

"Oh, come on. That mission was fun. And the huttlet was cute."

"I guarantee you that now he's very far from the cute being you remember him to be. And he wasn't even cute, to begin with."

"You're just saying that because you're biased against the Hutts."

"Well, considering they're little more than slimy, morally irreprehensible scum and slavers…"

"You really don't have a lot of moral high ground over them. And they can't all be that bad."

"When you meet a Hutt with morals, let me know."

"I'm pretty sure the universe will end before I manage that."

"That, we agree on."

"Us? Agree on something? Oh no. The rapture must be coming."

Vader would have replied to that had Liberty Resistance fighters not suddenly stormed into the room.

"Rex must have gotten the minefield deactivated."

"Either that or Diya and Han's plan to bomb the minefield worked," Ahsoka said.

They had enough allies now that it wasn't a fatal error for Vader to pause his fire and look over his shoulder at Ahsoka.

"They did _what?_"

"What do you think those explo—Where's Jabba?"

Vader turned to the pedestal where not even a few minutes ago, Jabba had been sitting. How in all the nine Corellian _hells_ had the slug been able to get away that fast? They'd only looked away from him for a few moments.

"We can't let him get away," Vader said.

"No stang," Ahsoka snapped. "Artoo. My lightsabers."

From wherever the little droid was in the room, having followed the fighters into the fray, he shot Ahsoka's lightsabers into the air, allowing Ahsoka to summon them to her hands. Then she promptly made her way out of the palace while speaking into her comm.

"Please tell me someone has eyes on Jabba."

"_He's on his sail barge leaving the palace,"_ came a voice in response that Vader wasn't familiar with.

"Cal. Don't let him get away."

"_I wish I could, but me, Merrin, Diya, and Han are just a little preoccupied with being shot at."_

"You've been hanging around Obi-wan way too much, Cal. You're picking up his sass," Ahsoka said before turning off the comm.

"Come on," Vader said, grabbing Ahsoka's hand and yanking her in the direction that he and Rex had left her ship, far out of the way of the fighting.

They sprinted across the desert sand and found the ship mostly unscathed save for the caking of sand and debris on it from where Diya and company decided it was a good idea to bomb the minefield. Vader didn't stop until he was in the pilot's seat. By the time Ahsoka fell into the co-pilot seat next to him, he had them in the air and scanning the area for Jabba's barge.

"There he is!" Ahsoka exclaimed.

Vader steered the ship in the direction she was pointing before he even caught sight of the barge himself. Ahsoka turned her seat to the weapons' system and prepared to shoot him down.

"Shoot to disable it only."

"I know," Ahsoka said dismissively. "They need to see his body, right? See for himself that he's dead or captured."

"Yes," Vader said slowly, unable to keep his surprise from spilling across their bond.

She flashed a smile at him over her shoulder and said, "I've learned a lot about your people and culture in the short time I've been here."

"They aren't… I'm not…" Vader trailed off.

"I know," Ahsoka said in a patronizing tone as she fired at the barge, effectively disabling it.

Vader landed the ship in front of the disabled barge. Between him and Ahsoka, they made quick work of what remained of Jabba's loyal guards and found Jabba at the back of the ship. He was seething at his apparent defeat, the slug's fear and hate pervading the Force and feeding the dark side. Today, it seemed, was just a day of temptations and restraint. How badly Vader wished to simply run his lightsaber through the Hutt's guts. But that wasn't any fun. A quick death would be a mercy. He had a much better idea.

Ahsoka must have sensed his glee across the bond because she turned to look at him and asked, "Do I even want to know?"

"No, but you're going to find out."

* * *

**AN: **1) True story. I forgot ships have names. Well... not forget. Just didn't think about it. So I finally got around to naming Ahsoka's ship in this chapter.

2) We are getting to some really good stuff in the next couple of chapters, including quite a bit more of Luke and Leia in the rest of the story. I had way too much fun with them, and I can't wait to share them with you all. I'm also ten chapters or so away from actually finishing writing the story on my end. So once that happens, I'll move to an every three-day update schedule so I can have this story uploaded by the end of the year.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review, please. I appreciate and value your insights.


	61. Devotion

**Chapter Sixty-One: Devotion**

Tatooine, Ahsoka sensed, had an underlying rage, hate, pain, and suffering going back thousands of generations. Starting with the conflicts between the native sand people and the ancient humans that settled there, continuing when the Hutts arrived and brought their tyranny and crime upon the people, and getting worse through the many generations of slaves that suffered and cried out in the face of cruel subjugation by their masters and overseers.

The dark feelings were so thick in the atmosphere, so buried in the sands of the planet, so bred into its people, that it surprised Ahsoka that the planet hadn't become a dark side locus. Like Mustafar or the Sith world from Jedi legends, Malachor. Instead, the Force presence around the Tatooine seemed to have a blanketing effect that dampened Force presences and helped the light to hide. It was no wonder the Jedi didn't sense Anakin until they'd happened upon him on his home planet.

It was understandable, then, why Sidious had been so adamant on having Anakin Skywalker as his apprentice. That kind of suffering and rage was bred and buried in him. Making him as tough and course as the sands he'd been raised in, waiting for the right circumstances to be freed. It had first been to the Jedi's advantage, the simmering dark emotion unconsciously and ironically fueling his righteous passion and crusades on behalf of the light. Then it was to the advantage of the Sith, Palpatine, in particular, by taking away all the tempers to that darkness and unleashing it to terrorize the galaxy and bring it under his will.

Today, Vader had channeled that darkness again. But there was something tamer about it when the people of Tatooine collectively shared the burden of the darkness. He'd directed Diya to make the suggestion to throw Jabba, his remaining lackeys, and any of the remaining slavers that tried to put up a fight across the planet into the sarlacc pit, a suggestion their Elder Council and resistance forces happily agreed to. Then, with the slug having to suffer through the painful torture of live digestion for the next thousand years, there was the matter of what to do with the Hutt's palace.

The general consensus was to burn it down. Thus, they'd freed any captives and slaves and gutted the valuable items, including food and medical supplies before dragging barrels of gasoline and spice through the palace. Then they lit dozens of torches and lit the palace in a blaze that Vader lamented would probably attract every tusken clan for a fifty-mile radius. Diya, not fooled by Vader's disguise thanks to the Force, took it for an order to set up a perimeter just in case the tuskens were attracted. Meanwhile, everyone else either recovered from the ordeal or started up celebrations for their victory under the backdrop of the blaze.

Ahsoka lost Vader somewhere in the thick of the aftermath. The battle here might be won, but they'd effectively just started a war with the Empire, and it was crucial their beginning was on the right footing.

Ahsoka first checked in with the situation on Naboo, where Imperial forces had retreated or been subdued. Barriss was on her way to negotiate with Naboo's queen and the gungans on the Alliance's behalf. Then she had Diya brief her on the other key revolts to deal with Jabba's extended network of lackeys and other crime syndicates so they could secure his trade routes and hyperspace lanes. After she checked in with her other generals and admirals, she reached out to see which Rebellion senators had checked in to confirm their safety as they fled from Coruscant to go back to their homeworlds where they could more easily invoke their diplomatic immunities. If their planets were too dangerous, they would head to the new Rebellion headquarters.

Only a few had checked in, but that was no reason to panic. Many were probably still in hyperspace, carefully maneuvering through hyperspace routes less patrolled by the Empire. She'd check for more in the morning.

Necessary rounds finished, Ahsoka went to find food, smoked eopie that they'd looted from Jabba's palace. She might have retreated to her ship if it weren't much further of a walk than she was willing or had the energy to make right then. So instead, she retreated to the tent that had been set up for her use. If anything needed her attention, someone would no doubt come find her.

Ahsoka discarded her utility belt and bracers before collapsing onto her pallet with her food. Not too far away from her tent, she could hear one of the elder council, the black twil'lek woman, telling stories with the rapt attention of a crowd of men, women, children, and soldiers sitting around her. Ahsoka listened from her tent much less intently, enjoying it more for the relaxing and happy background chatter than she did for the actual content of the stories.

She sensed Vader seeking her out to join her long before he unzipped her tent and entered without bothering to ask for permission to do so. Ahsoka supposed it was only fair. She'd stopped asking permission to enter his spaces a long time ago, even before the fall of the Empire. He made sure to zip the tent up all the way before he dropped the satchel he'd been carrying all day, discarded the ubese breath mask, and then sat across from her on the other side of the tent. It was almost a little disconcerting considering that the last time they'd seen each other face to face, he kissed her, and she'd gotten the feeling that he wanted to do a lot more. Whereas then he'd been so confident and sure, now he seemed… awkward didn't seem to be the right word. If he'd been that uncomfortable, he might have avoided her altogether. Reserved was probably the better term. So were the many nuances of the man before her.

She passed her bowl of meat to him, and he pulled off a chunk of it before passing it back to her.

Finally, Ahsoka broke the silence and asked, "How long do you have before you have to go back to the Emperor?"

"I can probably stretch how long I have to contact him before he gets concerned to a week and a half or so. The officers in my fleet know the protocols for this kind of predicament," Vader said.

"Good. Then that means you can come with me tomorrow to rendezvous with the twins. It'll be a nice birthday surprise for them."

A hum of excitement and anticipation that Vader would never physically show came across their bond at the prospect. It had been a while since they were able to coordinate a time for her to bring the twins for a visit. Eight months, specifically. The longest since their unorthodox custody arrangement began.

"And it means I don't have to drag Cal or Rex with me," Ahsoka added.

"Cal. He's a general. You're making the Jedi your generals again?" Vader asked.

Ahsoka wasn't even going to ask exactly what Vader's encounter with Cal had entailed. She might ask Cal about it, figure out if he'd known his encounter with a soldier disguised as a ubese bounty hunter hadn't been all it seemed.

"No. Cal just happens to be a Jedi and volunteered for the position, though I did make the offer to all the Jedi I've got that remain. Many of them are willing to fight with me, but not in that capacity. They've learned from the mistakes of those before them. Cal and Merrin are close to Diya, though. So when he knew she was the one helping spearhead this mission, he approached me before I could even ask. Being a general gives him more proximity to her, and Merrin sticks close to Cal," Ahsoka explained.

"Merrin?"

"A Dathomir witch whose tribe was destroyed during the Clone War when she was a girl."

Vader scoffed. "If I didn't know you, I'd brand this entire rebellion as a crew of odd misfits looking for trouble."

"That's what a lot of people thought about us except we just had the backing of the Republic and the Order."

Ahsoka sensed that Vader disagreed with that, but he didn't argue with her.

They fell back into companionable silence. After a while, Ahsoka remembered that they were both terrible at expressing themselves when there was something between them that needed to be discussed. That was until they both got frustrated and things imploded between them, or one of them acted first and decided to talk later.

The last thought made Ahsoka pause. There might be better and more healthy ways to resolve their issues, but acting first and dealing with the consequences later had worked for them thus far.

Ahsoka sat her bowl aside and out of the way and crawled the short distance between them. She then climbed into his lap, her thighs straddling him on either side, and took his face into her hands. If he was surprised, he didn't show it in the blazing orange light in the background, nor did it come across their bond. All Ahsoka sensed was careful restraint as she stared into his eyes—the bluest she had seen them in a while now—for a few short moments. When she still couldn't get a concrete reading of what he might be feeling about this, she fleetingly wished she'd taken the alcoholic brew Diya offered her a few hours ago to give her more courage. But she'd taken a step forward now, and she wouldn't give Vader the satisfaction of seeing her back down at something. She never had before.

She kissed him, moving one of her hands to the nape of his neck, playing with and mussing dark blond curls as she moved her lips against his. His right hand settled on her hip while his left moved up to stroke her lek. She shivered with the touch, a clicking, trilling noise vibrating from the back of her throat. Ahsoka sensed the chill of the dark side rise up in him, ready to take her in its possessive and protective embrace. To own her. But although Vader responded physically by kissing her back, he restrained the instinct to wholly take her, surprising her by being the one to break them apart. He didn't push her off his lap, though, nor did he break them apart very far.

"I thought we needed to talk."

"This is my way of talking."

"Ahsoka."

"Vader."

He took a few moments to collect the right words, words that had never particularly come easy to him, but never once averted his gaze.

"I need to make sure you know what this means," he said, speaking with an intensity that Ahsoka only heard him use when he was giving someone a warning.

He let go of the tenuous restraint and reservation he'd been holding on his side of the bond. Ahsoka let out a breath and closed her eyes at the rush of emotions, thoughts, and feelings that came across it. Nothing particularly concrete. A lot of abstract things that Ahsoka couldn't put a name to or didn't have a name for at all. But she still got the overall meaning.

When Anakin Skywalker decided something, he committed to it full-heartedly and without hesitation. He utterly devoted himself to his commitments to people without abandon, no matter the cost. It was both a strength and a weakness for him. A strength because to have the devotion of Anakin Skywalker was to have the galaxy at one's fingertips if they asked for it. A weakness because to fail in that devotion in any way was both unfathomable and unacceptable. He would give and give of himself and only ask for the same devotion or, at least, the honest attempt to give it. Hence why he reacted so terribly and angrily when he perceived that someone had betrayed that devotion.

He was willing to give her that, and somehow she was both flattered by and terrified of it. Flattered because the offer of it was far and few in between. Terrified because she'd seen the destruction that devotion could wreak.

Sensing his impatience for an answer, she began by breathing, "Anakin," and then the buzzing of her comm interrupted her. If times weren't so tumultuous for the Rebellion and the war she'd started, Ahsoka might have ignored it. Alas, she sighed and rolled her eyes, pulling away from Vader and making her way to the other side of the tent to retrieve her comm. She started to grab her regular comm, only to find that wasn't the comm that was buzzing. It was the comm she used to contact Vader. No one else even knew the encrypted code except…

Dread suddenly filled her and weighed heavy in her gut.

She answered with the comm turned to the opposite wall just in case.

"_Mom!"_ Luke exclaimed from where he knelt in the holo.

Leia, who was standing with her back to Luke, looked over her shoulder and said, _"You got through?"_ Without waiting for an answer, she continued, _"Better make it quick."_

"What's going on? Where are you? Where's—"

"_No time," _Luke said, looking swiftly behind him and back at her. "_The Empire's here. Alderaan's been attacked. The palace… Song…"_ The communication fizzled so that Ahsoka didn't hear all of what Luke said. But she knew enough.

"Where are you? Who's with you?"

"_In the palace. But Aunt Breha told us—"_

Luke cut himself off as behind them, the door opened, and three stormtroopers burst into the room. But Leia was ready for them. Leia: Ahsoka's little girl with her father's fiery temper that would only turn nine in less than two days; who two weeks ago had driven herself to tears because she'd been so upset and worked up about the injustice in the galaxy that she had learned from her readings; who three weeks ago gave her a cheeky, mischievous grin when she'd been caught with her brother sneaking extra pastries for later from the kitchen. Leia pulled the trigger on her already raised blaster, once, twice, three times, and all three troopers fell to the ground.

"_We gotta move,"_ Leia ordered in an authoritative tone with eyes too hard and steely for a girl her age.

"_Follow Mother Alderaan's children,"_ Ahsoka heard Winter's shaky voice say.

"_That's right, Winter,"_ Luke said, grabbing the Alderaanian princess' hand comfortingly. Luke: Ahsoka's sweet and kind little boy, so much like his first mother; who three weeks ago kept his eyes mostly squinted shut all the way through a scary children's monster movie and then slept in her bed under the pretense of making sure Ahsoka had company as she stayed up to work late; who rambled excitedly to her about Alderaanian ship designs and the modifications he planned to make to his own ship one day. He gave Winter a charming, disarming smile—so much like his father's—and added, _"You remember how the song goes, right?"_

"_Yes," _came Winter's quiet voice.

Leia's hard expression softened for her companion, and she began, _"Let's—"_

Whatever order Leia was going to give was cut off as the holo fizzled again, and then the connection broke altogether. Ahsoka's body moved on auto-pilot. Subconsciously, she understood the magnitude of what she'd just learned while consciously she could barely comprehend it as terror made her thoughts incomprehensible and incoherent. Vader was already way ahead of her, having put on the mask of his disguise and picked up her utility belt and bracers. She took the bracers from him and put them back on as they sprinted out of her tent and headed across the camp to her ship.

"Ahsoka!" came a shout across the camp.

Ahsoka didn't stop to wait for Cal to catch up with her. Instead, the young man fell into step with her and Vader. Ahsoka finally stopped at the bottom of her ship's ramp to speak with him, absently noticing that Merrin, Diya, and Han had run to catch up with them. Vader continued into the ship to begin the startup sequences.

"What's—" Cal began.

"I have to go to Alderaan. Right now," Ahsoka blurted out.

"Alderaan. But—"

Ahsoka cut Diya off. "I don't know when I'll be able to make contact again. Hopefully, in a few days. In the meantime, wait for confirmation from our allies in the Senate that they're safe and accounted for."

"What do I tell High Command if they call?" Diya asked.

"That I left you all in charge."

"Us?" both Diya and Cal exclaimed.

"No time. Rex will help. Contact Obi-wan or Satine and Bo-Katan if things get desperate. Use our networks to find any intel you can on the movements of the Imperial fleet in the core and forward them to me," Ahsoka ordered. Then she ran the rest of the way up the ramp.

By the time she joined Vader in the cockpit, he'd already begun to take off into the night sky of Tatooine and shortly afterward, had them out of the atmosphere and into hyperspace.

* * *

**AN: **1) I love the idea that Anakin is really a product of his home planet. Given the circumstances of his upbringing and the questionable circumstances of his birth (and when I say that, I mean it can be read a lot of ways), it's only natural that some his anger and a lot of his temperament was innate. It might have been something the Jei could have curbed if he'd gotten to them at a younger age, but trying to ask him to just change that was like asking him to change himself. It lends credence to why Mace didn't want him trained as a Jedi. That's not to say that that temperament makes Anakin innately bad because of it. Just that Mace was right in the sense that Anakin was ill-suited to be the kind of Jedi the Order wanted him to be (though it came in handy when they needed that temperament to fight a war).

2) It's always something in the way with Vader and Ahsoka, huh?

3) I can't wait for you all to read the next chapter. It's an interlude that I think you all will really enjoy it... mostly.

Anywho, I'm going to get out of here because I know that was one hell of a cliffhanger to leave you on and I have absolutely no regrets about it and I'm smart enough not to stick around for you all to burn me at the stake for it. Hope you enjoyed. Review, please! I enjoy and appreciate your insights. I read all the reviews. But it's hard to really reply to any right now without giving away spoilers. So probably after the next chapter, I can start doing more replying again.


	62. Leia's Interlude

**Chapter Sixty-Two: Leia's Interlude**

There were three constants in Leia's life. Constants that went as far back as she could remember. The first was the Force. Leia had been aware of it before she even knew she was alive. Before she'd even known what to call it. The second was her brother, Luke. He had been there almost as long, if not as long, as the Force. The third was Mama. She hadn't been there as long as the Force or Luke, but Leia knew she had been there soon after. She couldn't remember a time when Mama wasn't there. And one of the first things Leia remembered Mama teaching her was to _always_ trust the Force. Because the Force was always with her. Even if Mama wasn't. All she had to do was trust it, listen to it, and the Force would guide her. Thus, Leia only needed to feel the gentle prodding of the Force once to know that something was terribly wrong when Song came to retrieve her and Luke for the Empire Day celebrations.

Because it was the ninth Empire Day, and because nine was important to the Emperor and his home planet, the celebrations in the Core were synchronized to match with the time of celebrations on Naboo. On Alderaan, this meant that the celebrations were very early in the morning, hours before the Alderaanian sun would rise in the sky. Leia wore traditional Alderaanian dressings of dark purple that in just the right light appeared blue (meaning trickery, Leia had learned) like she always wore on Empire Day. Her hair was pulled up into a high braided bun, this year without the need for the annoying extensions she'd been forced to wear the last two years. Next to her, Luke wore new robes of similar coloring with his ordinarily unruly hair combed, brushed, and gelled into place.

_Something's not right,_ Leia heard Luke mentally communicate to her.

Good. He sensed it too.

_I know_, she replied back.

"Come," Song said urgently. "We must leave quickly."

Leia resisted the urge to look at Luke and instead asked, "Are we late for the celebration, Song?"

"No. You won't be going."

"Why?"

"There's been a change of plans. You must leave now instead."

That was wrong. Leia didn't need the Force to tell her that. If there was ever a change of plans with things like this (like when Mama was going to be home a little later than she planned from a mission; or when Aunt Breha suddenly sent them away to the countryside with Winter to stay with the princess' aunts when she was hosting important [dangerous] Imperials), Aunt Breha always came herself to deliver the news and press the importance (or secrecy) of what was about to be told, something she knew the twins would only trust if it came directly from her. Because that was another one of the things Mama taught them: trust very, very few.

The list of those they could trust had gotten a little longer over the years, but it was still short, and not everyone could be trusted with everything: Mama (of course); Daddy (when he was around); Aunt Breha (always); Uncle Bail (with most things, but not with Daddy); Winter (Leia and Luke decided that when she kept the secret about Daddy); Diya (let her guess at everything and don't give her a real answer); Rex (he was usually protecting Mama); and Obi-wan (even though he was definitely a Jedi and one of the things Mama and Daddy didn't argue about was not liking the Jedi).

"Aw, man! Aunt Breha promised I could have as many pastries as I wanted too," Luke whined.

Luke was always whining about something. Leia told him so all the time. But now wasn't for real. Now was to make Song think they didn't suspect anything. Daddy taught them that. He hated working for the Emperor but pretended he liked it so that the Emperor wouldn't know he was helping Mama.

"At least I can take my hair out this stupid style. It's giving me a headache," Leia added. Because she wasn't supposed to be happy about leaving Alderaan, and she wasn't. Song would expect that.

"Come now," Song said. Their handmaiden who'd help take care of them since they came to Alderaan along with Madison (Where was Madison? She was supposed to be here too). Song had never given them any reason not to trust her. But the Force said don't. And Mama said to trust the Force always, even over the people on their list to trust.

Leia hesitated. She sensed Luke did too. They knew not to trust Song, but what did they do now?

A feeling came over her and then a thought originating from the Force.

_Go. Wait for the right moment._

Leia nodded, not bothering to ask about their things. Everything they needed was already packed and ready to go in their getaway ship. Supposedly. If they were still sticking with the old plan. The old plan also included using a secret hanger to leave the planet. Mama showed them. Because she didn't want them to be afraid, she wanted them to know where they were going and how they were going to get there. Leia and Luke took the time to explore every secret and main pathway to get there. The path Song was taking them on was to the main hanger.

"Why are we going to the main hanger?" Luke asked as Song led them through halls that were too quiet and too empty.

The Force kept telling Leia to wait, though. For what? Leia wasn't sure.

"I told you. The plans have changed. Now be quiet."

Leia felt the woman's nervousness. She also felt her guilt. Guilt for what she was about to do. Fear, not for Leia and her brother, but fear for herself.

Leia tried not to press her lips together so hard.

As they turned the hall where the doors to the main hanger were, Leia sensed Luke begin to gather the Force around him. He wasn't supposed to touch it. Not like this. Not when there were too many people in and out the palace, and someone might notice. But that didn't matter. The Force said it was almost time to act. They had to move fast. Leia followed her brother's actions.

Song opened the door to the hanger. Leia barely saw the line of white armor and raised blasters before Leia summoned the blaster that Song had brought to her hand and was turning onto them. Luke thrust his hands out and pushed, causing Song to fly through the hanger door and the stormtroopers to stumble or totally fall in surprise. Leia shot the locking mechanism and caused the hanger doors to close. Hopefully, it would take a while before the troopers could get in that way.

"What's going on?" Luke asked as they ran back the way they came.

"I don't know, but—" Leia paused and took a few steps back to look out the window they'd passed. There was an outline of lights in the sky that gave away the presence of star destroyers and shuttles with more stormtroopers coming down.

"The Empire," Luke whispered.

Mama also told them that while most people who weren't on their trust list just meant they didn't know if they could trust them, there were some people who Luke and Leia were never to trust under any circumstance. The Empire was at the top of the list.

"We have to find Aunt Breha," Leia said.

"But she could be anywhere."

Luke was right. Things had changed. An hour or so ago, they knew they would have been able to find their aunt in her rooms getting ready or, more likely, already meeting guests for the Empire Day celebrations.

Now there was no telling where anyone was or what was going on. All Leia knew was that it was wrong, Mama wasn't here, and—

"Wait," Luke said, grabbing Leia's hand. "Remember what Mama said to do. When we thought we lost her a couple of years ago? On Naboo."

They went to Naboo sometimes when Mama decided she didn't want to deal with the cold Alderaan winters. The first time, she'd had to send them into a market for some fresh fruit, and they'd gotten lost in the crowded stalls. It was too many people and too loud, and even using the shields Mama and Daddy taught them to block it all out, nothing felt right. A tug on their bond with her, and Mama found them, her head ducked and gaze to the ground with the Force pulled around her so no one would pay attention. Later she told them when things felt like they were too much to find somewhere safe to stop. Then breathe, set the fear aside, and focus. Ask the Force for help if they needed it. An answer would come.

Leia nodded. They were as safe as they were going to get for now. She stopped, breathed, and pushed the fear away. With her heart not pounding so loud in her ears and her head not hurting so much (stupid hairstyle), Leia focused and reached across her bond with Luke. Luke reached back. They touched, and Leia heard and felt the Force better than she had even just a few minutes ago. And then she knew where they would find Aunt Breha.

Leia opened her eyes and started in the direction, but Luke grabbed her arm and said, "Wait. Don't you feel it? There are a lot of people there. The Empire, I think."

Leia paused and checked again. Luke always had been better at sensing people. Most of what Leia had felt was fear (for Alderaan, for people's lives, for the children). But among all that was Aunt Breha's unmistakable bravery, even though she was afraid too. But a closer look with the Force said there was something dark there too. Cruelty, people who were mean for the sake of it. Something dangerous. It almost felt like Daddy but without the safety and comfort and love that he hid underneath it.

They couldn't go to Aunt Breha yet. They had to go somewhere else…

"Where's the Alderaanian guard?" Luke asked. "They should be there. They should have gotten everyone out when they saw the Empire."

Leia remembered Song, whirling around to point her blaster at them, and said, "Alderaan's been betrayed. That's what. To find us." And Leia knew there were a lot of reasons the Empire could want them. Because of Mama or Daddy or their first mother or just for being able to use the Force. "Someone else in the guard might have been helping Song."

"But not all of them," Luke said. "They've gotta be keeping them somewhere."

"Not the throne room. That's where they have Aunt Breha," Leia said. "But if they've gathered up all the guard, it would have to be in a room just as big. Like…"

"The main conference room!" Luke exclaimed. His face fell. "If they're alive."

Leia paused, reaching out into the Force to feel deeper into what the Imperials wanted. She shook her head. "I don't think they want that. Not yet, anyway. Let's go to the conference room. We'll use the secret hallways."

Luke nodded. There were many entrances to the secret hallways and passages in the walls of the palace. In their rooms, from the kitchens, the throne rooms, next to the sacred altar of Mother Alderaan in the gardens. Hidden in plain sight behind decorative silver and gold cages with prism white silk curtains that caused the hallways to look like rainbows when the sunlight came through and struck just right.

Leia and Luke carefully checked the hallway first before going to the third cage. She pushed on it just right, the bottom right corner, and the cage along with the attached curtain opened. They hastily climbed into the revealed passage and closed the gate back. The dim motion lights illuminated, and the two made their way through passageways they'd been shown by Aunt Breha. Only known to members of the royal family, whether that was by blood or spirit. Shown to them by maps they were made to memorize through tracing and connecting the dots in their lessons back when they could barely write.

The entrance to the conference room from the hallway was a holographic wall, part of which Leia and Luke could easily see out of but that no one else could see into from the opposite side. Sure enough, their hunch was right. A large part of the Alderaanian guard was in the room, their weapons taken. But it didn't look like there were in troopers in the room. Only that they'd been locked in.

"Think they've got the cameras on?" Leia asked, knowing her brother spent more time with the guard learning about things like that.

"They don't. Security only turns the cameras on in here when there's something going on because there's nothing important kept in here. If anyone goes in that's not supposed to, they'll see it on the hall camera outside the door. Even when they do turn them on, there's a blind spot to the passages."

"Good."

Before Luke could protest, Leia pushed the passageway open, startling the members of the guard packed into the room.

"Milady," the captain, a tanned woman with brown hair, said.

"Not so loud. The stormtroopers," Leia said, nodding towards the door. Then she nodded to the passageway Luke was holding open. "We know where the Queen and princess are. Come on."

The woman hadn't gotten her job being incompetent, as Leia was sure Daddy would have said. She asked no questions as she stood to her feet with the rest of the Alderaanian guard (part of it anyway). They followed Luke and Leia into the passages, where Luke and Leia lead them to a secret, stocked weapons room.

"We have to get Aunt Breha and Winter," Luke said. "They're in the throne room."

Leia carefully grabbed another blaster—something smaller that fit better in her hands—and slipped it into her robes while no one was looking.

"Any chance the secret passages lead to the throne room?" the captain asked.

"Of course," Leia said with a roll of her eyes.

The woman nodded. "We'll deal with the Imperials to distract them. Find the Queen and princess, and you all get out."

They nodded and gave the guards directions for how to leave the passage. Then, Luke and Leia went to the halls and to the throne room. If it weren't for the fact that the Empire was here and the danger she felt in the Force, it would feel like one of the games they played with Winter in the maze in the garden.

The entry into the throne room was another of the gold and silver gates with prism white silks in it. And just like with the conference room, they could see through the glass and the curtains into the throne room, but they couldn't be seen. Aunt Breha was there, Winer clutched to her side with Threepio standing next to her. She was glaring at a tall, pale man with sunken eyes and cheeks and greying hair. He wore an Imperial uniform that Leia recognized as belonging to a high ranking officer. An admiral, maybe. Could even be a governor. Behind him was a line of stormtroopers.

"I tire of going over this with you, Your Majesty," the man said in a stuffy accent. "Either you tell me what I want to know or suffer the consequences. Where have you hidden the Jedi children?"

Aunt Breha's eyes were hard. "There are no Jedi children, Moff Tarkin. I don't know what you're talking about. Alderaan is a peaceful planet. We've pledged our loyalty to the Empire. Why would we associate with traitors and warmongers like—?"

"I know the children are here, and so is their Jedi mother. Your servant told me all about it," he said, gesturing to where Song was standing next to him.

"I'm so sorry, milady," Song said, teary-eyed. "They said if I didn't tell, they would take my nieces in their place."

Tarkin straightened a little, and in the Force, Leia felt his dark and cruel excitement.

He said, "Now that's an idea. If you're so reluctant to turn over the Jedi children, we'll take your daughter to the Emperor instead."

He nodded to two of the stormtroopers, and they approached Aunt Breha, who backed away with Winter and said, "_No_."

The stormtroopers grabbed onto Winter, and there was chaos as Aunt Breha screamed, and Winter clung as tightly as she could to her mother while bursting into tears and loud screams of her own. Off to the side, Threepio was in a panic, yelling that there was no need for violence.

"We have to do something," Luke said shakily.

"I don't know what," Leia admitted.

She had two blasters. But she couldn't beat all those stormtroopers, even with the Force. Mama could have. Mama would have stormed into the room like the tall, graceful angel she was and defeated everyone. Like Winter had told them she overheard from Uncle Bail and Aunt Breha when they thought she'd been asleep.

There was a prodding from the Force.

_Wait for the right moment._

The right moment? When was that going to be? Leia bit her lip as three more stormtroopers grabbed onto Aunt Breha and snatched her away from Winter.

A commotion could be heard outside, and Leia knew who it was before they burst into the throne room and started shooting at the stormtroopers.

_Now_, the Force whispered.

Luke must have heard it too because he pushed the door open. He ran to where Winter had been dropped by the stormtrooper that had been holding her during the commotion. While he tried to get her to stand, Leia went to Aunt Breha, who had fallen on the floor during the firefight.

"Leia," the woman said, pulling her into her arms. "Where's—?" Breha caught sight of Luke pulling Winter along and stopped. She turned back to Leia and pressed a portable comm in her hands. "You all have to run. Go to the main communications tower and hook this up to it. It's the only system that might be powerful enough to get through their block on most communications. Contact your mother. If you can't get her, call your father. The codes are on the comm. Keep calling until one of them answers. There's a safe house in the mountains. You all have to go there and wait until they come to get you."

"But we don't know where—"

"You do. Follow Mother Alderaan's children."

"Mother Al—oh," Leia said, remembering the nursery rhyme about Mother Alderaan's children and how each child led people who got lost to safety. "But what about you?"

"I can't go with you. Now go. Go before—"

"Well, then. Looks like I didn't need you to tell me after all. They came right to me."

Leia had her blaster raised and pointed at the man's head before he even finished talking, but a trooper already had his blaster pointed at Breha.

"Stop this nonsense. Or your queen will pay the price," Tarkin warned loudly, causing a pause in the altercation between the stormtroopers and the Alderaanian guards.

For a long moment, they looked over at where Aunt Breha was with a blaster to her chest. Then, slowly they all lowered their blasters. All except Leia.

"Your weapon, Jedi child," Tarkin warned.

Leia tried to control her shaking, finger on the trigger of her blaster. They wanted her and Luke alive, at least. But Aunt Breha…

"Your weapon or your queen," he said.

The Force was telling her it didn't matter, and Mama said not to trust the Empire. The Empire always lied. Leia turned slightly to look at Aunt Breha. Aunt Breha, who was scared but brave. Not afraid of the blaster pointed at her but for Leia, Luke, and Winter.

"_I'm sure Ahsoka has a rule about you practicing with that on your own," Daddy said._

_Leia gasped, dropped her blaster, and jumped in surprise. Then she puffed out her lip and said, "Really, Daddy?"_

_He smiled a little, his eyes sparkling with laughter as he used the Force to summon the blaster to his hand. He held it out to her. When she hesitated, he nodded and said, "Go ahead. Ahsoka told me she was teaching you. And Luke, when he lets her. I want to see."_

_Leia took the blaster and turned back to her practice target. She fired off two shots in a row. Then another two._

"_Good," Daddy said. "But why do you have it set to stun?"_

"_Mama said to. She said taking a life is hard. That you never forget it, and that even if I have to use a blaster one day, she doesn't want me to have to live with that."_

"_Hm." Daddy glanced up in brief thoughtfulness before looking back at Leia._

"_Take it off stun," he said._

"_But—"_

"_If Ahsoka asks, I'll take the blame. You won't be in trouble."_

_Leia wasn't worried about being in trouble. It was Daddy who would be in trouble. Mama would argue with and maybe even yell at him until she got tired of Daddy's smirk and him disagreeing with her. That or one of them decided the other wasn't all the way wrong. Leia doubted that would happen. Besides, Mama and Daddy liked to argue with each other. They'd probably keep arguing for fun even if it wasn't serious anymore._

_Leia didn't say any of that, though. She flicked the blaster off stun, got into her stance, and pulled the trigger. She didn't lose her ground, but the impact was a little stronger than a stun blast._

"_Feels a little different. Doesn't it?"_

"_Yeah."_

_Daddy put a comforting hand on her shoulder as he said, "Ahsoka is right. Taking a life when you've never done it before can be hard. Even the injury a fully powered blaster can cause is hard. But stunned people get back up after a few minutes and come after you again. I rather you take a life or injure someone if you need to so they don't get back up, and you can come back to us. Ahsoka and I will help you live with it."_

Leia turned back to Tarkin, slowly lowering her blaster.

"Give it here," Tarkin demanded.

Leia glared at the man, hoping he could somehow feel all her anger and hate for him as she handed over the blaster. Tarkin then nodded back to the trooper. Everything happened fast after that. Leia was sure that she and Luke screamed, _"No!"_ and Winter screamed, "_Mommy!"_ at the same time as the trooper pulled the trigger on the blaster. But Leia was sure the trooper shot first. Before they screamed and before Aunt Breha slumped over on the ground and chaos ignited in the room again as the blaster fight began anew. And before, only by a second, Leia reached into the folds of her gown to pull out the second blaster.

Daddy's words in her head, Leia made sure her blaster was set to full blast and pulled the trigger twice. Her aim was true. She probably only needed to shoot once, but Leia wanted to be sure. When the two bolts pierced Tarkin straight in the head, he crumpled to the ground in front of Breha.

"Mommy!" Winter yelled, starting to run to Aunt Breha's side.

"We gotta go, Winter," Leia said, blocking the girl. "Come on, Threepio!"

"But—"

"We gotta go," Luke said softly. He grabbed Winter's hand. "Before they see." Luke nodded to the fight between the guards and the troopers. "Come on."

Winter nodded and ran behind Luke and a frantic Threepio to the followed, closing the gate behind them before running down the passage. They had to get a message to Mama or Daddy first. Then they'd follow Mother Alderaan's children to the safehouse. Leia had bought them some time. Tarkin wouldn't be getting up to come after them again.

**End of Part Six**

* * *

**AN: **1) I always knew the twins were going to have an interlude eventually. I just didn't know when until I got to this point. Leia gets her first. Switching from adult points of view to a child's was an interesting exercise. I thought it was a good chance to show how much Ahsoka, in particular since she's their primary parent, and Vader influence them in a situation where they're in danger and neither parent is there to protect them. Hence why it's always what Ahsoka would have told them to do. And the one time Leia doesn't do what her mother says to do, it's because she does what her father told her to do.

2) Yes. I killed Breha. And Leia killed Tarkin.

3) Also, it is not a spoiler to say that Palpatine absolutely had something to do with this. I hadn't forgotten about our big bad. He's been making moves too.

4) This chapter is a day early. But I wanted to get it out to you early after that cliffhanger. Every three days MIGHT be the new update schedule. Just depends on how much of the end of the story I can write. So we'll just say it's still every four days, but don't be surprised if I update a day early.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review, please. I appreciate your insights. I think I'm at a point where I can go back to replying without spoilers for a couple of chapters. Lol.


	63. Part Seven: Chapter Sixty-Three: Calm

**Part Seven  
****Chapter Sixty-Three: Calm**

As Vader began to make his way down the ramp of the ship, Ahsoka grabbed him by the arm to stop him. Then she angled herself so that she was mostly facing him and looking him directly where his eyes would be if not for the ubese breath mask he'd put back on.

"Vader. I need you to stay calm."

"I am calm."

"No. You're not," she insisted.

Vader began to deny her again, but a pointed prod across their bond made him know that such a denial would be in vain.

With Vader piloting and coordinating the path with the help of Artoo and the Force, he and Ahsoka were able to make the trip to Alderaan in two and a half days. Two and a half days with every waking moment spent with him combing through classified Imperial fleet and files in a special search for anything that mentioned Alderaan. Either the mission was so clandestine that there were no official records for it, or the mission was behind a clearance that only the Emperor could give access to even _find_. Either way, it meant the Emperor had gone out of his way to make sure that Vader didn't know about the mission.

There were few possible reasons for that.

One was that the Emperor somehow found out he was colluding with the Rebellion to overthrow him, and he hadn't wanted Vader to warn them on the impending invasion. Another was that somehow, he'd found out about two possible Force-sensitive children living in the Alderaan palace and figured out that they had a connection to Vader. Neither was reassuring. It had taken no time for him to gather the dark side to himself at the dawning realization that the Emperor could be striking back against him for all his sabotage and deception over the years. That as always, his master was one step ahead of him, and that this game of cat and mouse would never truly end until the man was dead and all his contingencies with him. There would be a time for that later, though. First, he needed to get the children off Alderaan and somewhere safe. Then he'd deal with his master.

Vader used all the self-control and restraint he'd practiced over the years to keep his simmering rage from boiling over. From giving in and losing himself to the chaotic temptation of the dark side. Hiding it all behind a veneer of collected calm—or so he'd thought. He shouldn't have been surprised that Ahsoka saw right through the façade.

Instead of denying her accusation a second time, he replied, "Neither are you."

Before she could try to dispute him, he poked at the same bond that she'd poked at a second earlier. Not that he would have needed to. When he'd trained her the second time, testing her resilience to the dark side and her resolve not to turn to its liberating power, the closest she'd been tempted was when she feared for Luke and Leia. But her fear back then, while warranted, was artificial. Her fear back then was that he would lash out and hurt them like he'd hurt Padmé. A fear that, when she realized was unfounded, she'd easily been able to overcome. Now, though? That fear was very valid, the threat and possibility of harm toward Luke and Leia very real. The idea that they might be taken out her grasp and far away from where she could protect them very real.

The only thing helping her keep her typical cool, calm, and collected senses was the mediation she'd done on her bond with Luke and Leia. A bond that was stronger than his with them—despite the lack of blood relations between Ahsoka and the two children. At one time, Vader had been jealous of that bond and wanted to severe it. Now he knew that bond was a familial comfort that gave the twins a sense of safety and security in a galaxy where those things were all but nonexistent. In a galaxy where just moments before and after their birth, the two people they'd subconsciously come to associate with safety had left them. A bond through which Ahsoka had been able to ascertain their safety over the two days and a half it took to traverse the galaxy to get to them. As safe as they could be hiding from Imperials on an occupied planet.

"I guess not," Ahsoka responded.

Upon seeing that the capital city was crawling with Imperials, running around and knocking on doors, Ahsoka informed him that she was going to get a better grasp of what was happening. A quick recon. They had no time to argue, so Vader didn't try to stop her. Besides, she knew the city and the palace better than he did, having lived here for the better part of the last seven years. Vader could concede that he would likely impede her movements. Not to mention that he stood out in this bounty hunters outfit.

When she came back, she told him that the authorities weren't asking about Luke and Leia, but their Alderaanian princess companion. A smart tactic, in Vader's opinion. He'd seen pictures of the young princess. Though Luke and Leia had paler complexions than most Alderaanians, their other features weren't distinct enough to warrant more than a passing glance. Their princess, on the other hand, stood out with her platinum, nearly white, blonde hair. Not to mention she was the princess of the planet. People were bound to be familiar with her. They would remember seeing her before they remembered seeing two wards of the royal family whose only significance to the public was as the princess' companions.

"We'll check the palace first," Ahsoka said.

"And how are we going to do that without anyone seeing us? It's crawling with storm troopers."

"There are secret passageways all throughout the palace. They're remains from the previous Aldera palace that the new Aldera palace was built over centuries ago. The royal family keeps them meticulously maintained so that they can escape in the event of an invasion. Even if they can't escape, the passages make good hiding places. The only ones who know how to navigate them are members of the royal family. They're taught to memorize the passages from a very young age using puzzles and games."

"If that's the case, how do you know about them?"

"Breha considers me and the twins members of the royal family."

Ahsoka led them a little further up the base of the mountain until she came across a small den covered in leaves and twigs that appeared to be made by some medium-sized animal. She moved the leaves and twigs aside before crouching down and crawling into the hole.

"Come on," Ahsoka said over her shoulder. "It'll be a tight fit, but we don't have the time to find one of the other passages."

Vader followed her into the den, which once they were moving was very apparently not an animal den. They followed the tunnel some fifteen meters before it finally began to expand into a hallway that they could stand in just over a meter or so in width. The motion sensor lights flickered on, lighting a dim path ahead of them. Ahsoka navigated the paths as though she'd already spent a significant amount of time down in these passageways before. Vader imagined that she had, using them to sneak away from Alderaan to go on impromptu missions; to avoid being seen by people that might be enemies when the palace hosted senators and dignitaries from across the galaxy.

At some point, they reached what Vader assumed to be a dead-end, but then Ahsoka looked at him and pointed. The dead-end was a transparent viewing window into one of the pristine halls of the Alderaan palace. Vader hadn't even known they'd arrived at the Alderaan palace. Based on the fact that the troopers hadn't sounded an alarm, he assumed that while he and Ahsoka could see them, the troopers couldn't see them.

His and Ahsoka's position gave them a perfect view of white marble and wooden doors that, at one point—maybe as recent as a few days ago—must have been a magnificent sight to behold. Now, they were covered in scorch marks from blaster fire—clear evidence of an altercation—and sequestered off with bright caution tape.

"Something happened in the throne room," Ahsoka stated.

"Then, we should find out what."

Already, Vader was inspecting the transparent viewing panel to find out how to open the passage.

"Not that way. There's another way into the throne room. I know you'd like to take out some of your rage on someone, but it'll be a lot better if no one ever realizes we were here."

Without waiting for an answer from him, Ahsoka started back through the passages giving Vader little choice but to follow. The followed a long curved path that sloped downward and then began to slope back up until they reach another dead end with a transparent viewing wall. A quick glance confirmed that there had definitely been an altercation in the throne room. But currently, no one was in it. No one alive anyway. There were plenty of dead bodies.

Ahsoka slipped her hand on some secret mechanism that caused the viewing panel to open outwards. While Ahsoka paused in front of the entrance, no doubt using her empathy to get a feel for what had happened, Vader stepped around her to investigate the room. Luke and Leia had been here. Their strong presences, fearful but courageous, lingered in the atmosphere. Bodies littered the floor, both Imperial and Alderaanian, even though it was clear this battle had happened some days ago. Vader wasn't shocked. The Imperial military lacked much respect for the fallen, especially when there was a more critical objective. Eventually, once the mission had succeeded or was a clear failure, someone would be sent to clear the bodies.

He paused at one of the fallen bodies. Grand Moff Tarkin. Vader scoffed. He wasn't surprised that the Emperor would entrust such a venture to the man, but Vader was surprised the man had come down to the planet to do the dirty work himself. It was a shame the person that managed to kill him was probably lying on the floor dead in this room. He would have liked to meet them and give his personal thanks for relieving Vader the trouble of eliminating the grand moff himself.

A choked cry from Ahsoka caught his attention.

He turned around to see his companion falling to her knees beside a body not too far from Tarkin's—Alderaan's queen.

"Breha," she gasped, gathering the other woman's body into her arms. Then she began to whisper the woman's name over and over under her breath.

Vader sensed Ahsoka lose control of her shields. He recognized the violent storm of emotions that swirled about her—disbelief, grief, denial, guilt, all converging into fury and rage at the injustice. Not just to Alderaan or the galaxy. But the personal injustice of it all. He'd frequently commented on Ahsoka's closeness to Alderaan's queen. Still, he hadn't been aware that Ahsoka placed so much value and importance on her friendship with her. Until now, as the carefully controlled hate that she kept hidden on a regular basis and thought he wasn't aware of began to bubble over. At the same time, they clashed with the side of her that no doubt said that unleashing her fury right now would do a lot more harm than good.

Vader decided it was best to give her a minute to work that conflict out on her own. He wasn't particularly a great example of rising above his turbulent emotions to think rationally for not just the short term, but the long term. If he were Ahsoka right now, he'd already be burning down the entire capital city, killing every Imperial in his path. He'd killed an entire tribe of sand people when his mother died and damned the entire galaxy after the demise of Padmé and—thought at the time—their child with her. He was just barely keeping the storm that was his own emotions in check right now. Because more than anything, he wanted to make his way straight to Coruscant and deal with the Emperor himself…

Vader shook his head of the thought and restrained his anger tighter. He had to focus. Right now, finding Luke and Leia was more important. He supposed he needed to remind Ahsoka of that.

"We have to go. Luke and Leia aren't here. You said these passages had many entrances in the mountains. They must have used one to escape the palace after they contacted you," Vader said.

Ahsoka didn't reply at first, her eyes absently looking over Breha's pale dead form. After a few moments, she whispered, "We have to take her with us."

"Ahsoka." Vader paused, looking for a way to say what needed to be said while also being sensitive to her grief.

"I'm not leaving without her."

Vader recognized that tone. No matter what valid arguments he gave for leaving the woman's body here, she wasn't going to hear it. Arguing with her would just waste more time.

"We'll need to wrap it in something," he settled on.

Ahsoka looked at him, her expression blank even as surprise came across their bond. She'd expected a fight from him. Vader supposed he'd never given her much reason not to expect one.

Vader broke their gaze and looked around the room, spotting the white curtains in the decorative gates. He used the force to yank them to him and then laid them on the ground. Ahsoka carefully laid the woman's body on the cloth before wrapping the body up. Vader pulled one more curtain from the wall so that the body could be completely wrapped. Ahsoka began to lift the covered body into her arms, but Vader intervened and lifted the body into his own arms.

"You have to lead us to wherever we're going next. You can't do that as effectively carrying a body around. I'll carry her," Vader declared. Not giving Ahsoka any chance to argue with him, he continued, "Do you have any idea where Luke and Leia might have gone?"

"And Winter."

"Who?"

"The princess. When they contacted us, they said something about following Mother Alderaan's children."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It's a folk rhyme commonly sung to Alderaanain children about how Mother Alderaan's spirit children will help lead people who get lost or trapped in the mountains, especially during the cold winters, to safety. Breha…" Ahsoka trailed off, her gaze going to the body in his arms. She tore her gaze away and continued in a shaky whisper, "Breha used to always sing it with the twins and Winter."

"Do you remember it?"

Ahsoka shrugged. "Some of it. Just the names of her children. The river that could be both vicious and gentle. Cross it at its gentlest and don't forget to—stars, I don't know the exact words—to fill up your skin to quench your thirst on the way. I don't know."

"Sounds like coded directions to me."

"Directions?"

"You said the children of the royal family learn the passages through puzzle and games. Why not learn the directions to a safehouse through a children's rhyme?"

Ahsoka gave him a skeptical look before sighing, the fight clearly drained out of her as she said, "We don't have any better leads except that they're not in the palace. I guess."

Vader frowned as she turned away from him and back through the hidden tunnels. She led them through the winding tunnels and out a different way than the one they'd come entered. One they didn't have to crawl through, but that was so narrow that Vader had to adjust the way he carried Breha's body so he could get through. It opened up to a narrow ledge behind a roaring waterfall. Once they were from behind the waterfall, Ahsoka followed the river downstream until the rushing river thinned into a gentle and shallow creek. Shallow enough that even a child could safely cross to the other side. Then they made their way around a windy meadow, staying close to the edge of the tree line until the meadow gave way to the sloping base of the mountain. Ahsoka paused here.

"What?" Vader asked.

"I forgot the next part. Something about swirling dirt and snow with wind. I can't remember. But I think I know where they went. They should be close enough by now for me to sense where they are."

Ahsoka climbed up the base of the mountain just slightly before veering off the worn path and into the forest of winter trees that thrived in the cool climate of Alderaan. The steady slope suddenly slanted into a sharp incline, but rather than climb it, Ahsoka felt around for something.

"What are you doing?"

"Before more modern technology began to take hold, the ancient Alderaanians used to carve homes and cities into the bases on the mountains. There are ruins all over the planet that reflect that. Breha once told me that there were even the remnants of where the ancient palace city used to be. Royalty lived in homes integrated further up the mountains to have a better view so they could watch over the people from above. There should be something around—here!" Ahsoka exclaimed.

Vader guessed that she palmed some hidden button because the next thing he knew, a section of the steep incline began to separate until it revealed a small entryway. At the end of the entryway was a door with a square windowpane, the orange glow of lights from inside shining through. Ahsoka palmed the covering of the mountain closed, went to the door, and began to press the locking mechanism on the handle. She turned to him.

"Leave the body—Breha—leave it out here," she whispered.

Ahsoka watched him carefully lay the body at the entrance before she turned back around and pushed the door open, whereupon they were immediately met with blaster fire. Fire that Vader raised his hand and gathered the Force to absorb long before he could gather his bearings about their surroundings.

"Mistress Leia! You really must pay attention to who you're shooting that thing at. You almost shot your mother!"

Leia ignored Threepio and muttered as though she weren't sure, "Mama?"

Then she dropped the blaster and leapt into her mother's arms.

"Mom," came a voice before a small head peeked from around from behind the couch. "Mom!"

Ahsoka knelt down to better be level with them, pressing comforting kisses on their faces and whispering words of comfort while the two rambled and cried about their ordeal. In the meantime, Vader took the time to observe the safe house. Dark wooden floors, orange lighting integrated into the stone walls and ceilings, a small kitchen, a couch with a rug, and various other pieces of furniture. A safe house with a song to lead the way. Smart of the Alderaanians.

He paused at the side of the couch, looking behind it and finding the small form of Alderaan's princess—Winter—huddled into herself.

"Really, Leia? You tried to shoot me? You couldn't sense that it was me?" Ahsoka asked.

"I thought it was, but the Force has been weird. We weren't sure," Luke replied quietly.

"Where's Winter?"

The girl huddled behind the couch looked up and screeched upon seeing Vader standing there in his disguise.

"It's okay, Winter," Luke said. "It's just our dad."

Luke's tone told Vader that his existence wasn't a revelation to Winter. He'd have to sit down and have a talk with the twins about who they revealed their secrets to without telling him and Ahsoka. Then again, perhaps they too deserved to have their own circle to depend on. Who better than the Alderaanian princess?

"Daddy," Leia sighed. Without looking at her, Vader knew she was rolling her eyes. "Take off that mask. You're scaring Winter."

Ahsoka snickered at Vader's expense, but Vader still removed the mask. Winter visibly relaxed upon seeing a face underneath, stood up, and slowly walked from around the couch. She approached Ahsoka and said quietly, "Aunt 'Soka."

"Yes."

"Mama…"

Ahsoka sighed and said, "I know, sweetheart."

Winter slowly closed the distance between her and Ahsoka and buried her face in Ahsoka's shoulder.

Vader waited for them to calm down before saying, "We have to move."

"Yeah," Ahsoka agreed. "But we have to bury Breha first. I'll go get the ship, you dig up the grave?"

Vader nodded, once again knowing it was best not to argue with that tone or they'd just prolong their leaving. It took a while to pry the three children away from her, but as soon as Ahsoka left to go get their ship, Vader went out to dig the grave. It was a little ways away from the safe house but in a spot to be easily found again once Palpatine was dead, and they ended the invasion of the core planet. By the time Ahsoka was back with the ship, Vader had already laid Breha's body in the ground but didn't cover it back up. The reason Ahsoka insisted on taking the body back in the first place was that she knew the Imperials wouldn't give her a proper Alderaanian burial. Like all traitors, the Empire would have burned the body, and the ashes would be lost.

If there were any special burial procedures, Ahsoka didn't know them, and neither did any of the children. Instead, Ahsoka and the children covered the wrapped body with dirt while Vader stood to the side and watched.

He had no personal connection to the Alderaan queen. But he did appreciate the risks and pains the woman had taken over the years to keep his children safe from harm; to give them a home while he wasn't in the position to provide them one despite the wealth being the Emperor's de-facto second afforded him; to care for and watch over them when their mother had to leave them to run a rebellion; to continue to do so even when she learned the truth of who the children's father had become. Vader knew no one that would have been so gracious. _He_ wasn't.

"Okay," Ahsoka said, snapping him out his thoughts. "We're ready."

Vader glanced at the now refilled grave, now lined with dark stones as a temporary marking.

Once he was settled into the pilot's chair with Ahsoka strapped next to him, Winter in her lap and the twins sitting behind them, she gave him the coordinates for another safe house on a planet a day or so trip from Alderaan.

"They're exhausted. They need a safe place to rest for now." Ahsoka pressed a kiss against Winter's forehead. The princess had fallen asleep almost instantly. "We all need to rest."

Vader again had no argument for her as he tapped in her coordinates. He then discreetly navigated them past the Imperial blockade—the blockade using maneuvers that he'd supervised the creation of and knew every weakness and hole in—and into hyperspace shortly thereafter.

"Vader."

"Yes, Ahsoka?"

"Are you okay?"

Wasn't that a loaded question? But instead of pointing that out, Vader simply replied, "I'm staying calm."

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**AN: **I am exhausted, but I wanted to get this chapter up before I went to bed. The only thing that I really have to say about this chapter is that you're supposed to get the sense that Vader is kind of, to quote Hamilton, a powderkeg about to explode. So if you got the sense that there is something eerily wrong with Vader's calm in this chapter, that is the point.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed! Review, please.


	64. Heart

**AN: **This chapter is short, mostly because it's only a partial chapter. This site does not allow explicit sex, and though I think the rule is dumb, their site, their rules. I will respect those rules. And I know there is smut all over this site and the rule against it is rarely enforced. But this is already a "controversial" pairing and the last thing I want is to give any of the moderation brigades around here a reason to mass report me. Thus, I put together some sort of ending and vague implication so that you'll know what happened. I don't like it because this story was envisioned to have explicit scenes, and cutting the sex scene out made this chapter shorter than I like to post. So if you want to see the full chapter as it was intended and envisioned, head on over to archive of our own. I have the same username over there and, of course, the story is under the same name. Just type "LadyDae How to Take an Empire ao3" into google, and it'll pop right up. If you don't want to see the explicit parts, proceed ahead.

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**Chapter Sixty-Four: Heart**

The ship rattled three times before Vader finally dropped them out of hyperspace about three-quarters of the way through their journey to Ahsoka's safehouse. He landed them in the middle of a meadow on some random uninhabited planet, immediately stood up, and stormed out the ship.

"Where's Dad going?" Luke asked. The storm of barely contained emotion from Vader must have awakened him and Leia out their sleep.

Ahsoka stood, placing a still sleeping Winter in the seat she'd vacated and ordered, "Stay on the ship. Don't leave unless your life depends on it."

Ahsoka then rushed out the ship behind Vader, who'd managed to cross a fair distance of the meadow in the time it had taken her to follow him. Clouds gathered in the sky above them. Ahsoka didn't have time to wonder if Vader's power was so all-encompassing, his fury so considerable, is Force powers so unrestrained, that Vader might be affecting the weather. And if he was, it was evidence that she needed to calm him down before he did something stupid.

"Vader," Ahsoka shouted.

He didn't stop.

"Vader. Would you calm down?"

He stopped. She barely stopped in time to prevent herself from colliding into his back. Then he rounded on her.

"Calm down?" he raged. "When Palpatine authorized an attack on Alderaan to get to Luke and Leia because somehow he figured out their connection to me?"

"You don't know that."

"Why else would he purposely keep a mission of that magnitude away from me? I didn't even have the clearance to find it."

That was true. All the evidence seemed to point to that, but they didn't know that for sure. Ahsoka would have to get what happened out of the twins to begin to figure that out.

"You still don't know that. How would he have even found that out? The only person on Alderaan who knew about you was Breha. If anything, I was probably the one Palpatine was trying to get to. He could have found out that I was alive and on Alderaan and that I also had two Force-sensitive children with me. But we can't find that out if you don't calm down."

Vader paused, but there were too many emotions swirling about his Force signature for Ahsoka to get a reading on what he was feeling.

Finally, he said, "It doesn't matter. I'm going to kill him."

"And you will. It'll only be another year and a half. Maybe two and then—"

"No. I'm going to drop you off at your safehouse, and then I'm going to kill him."

Kriff.

"You can't. You'll ruin everything. If you confront him now, everything we've done the last few years won't matter."

"It already doesn't matter. Not when he's gotten this close."

"No. You're letting your emotions get the best of you."

"I won't fail again."

"This isn't about you!" Ahsoka snapped, placing her hands on her hips. "It's not about proving yourself. Or your failures or your guilt. For once in your life, can you just not be selfish? Can you stop and think about how what you do will affect everyone and everything else? Can you think about what other people want and need?"

"What do you think I've been doing for the last few years? You think I get a kick out of playing lapdog to Palpatine? Missing out on my children's lives because I want this? Everything I've done is for Luke and Leia and the galaxy."

"After you kriffed everything else up in the first place because of your selfishness," Ahsoka reminded, voice raising. "None of this had to happen if you'd just stopped for five seconds to think things through."

A few years ago, that kind of accusation might have incited his rage enough to attack her in some form or fashion. Today, he turned and took a few paces away from her.

"You don't understand."

"Just because I don't lose my mind every time something kriffed up happens doesn't mean I don't understand," Ahsoka replied, not caring if her words were cruel. "You weren't the only one who lost Padmé. And you aren't the only person worried about what the Emperor knows about Luke and Leia. And they…" Ahsoka trailed off and before managing to choke out, "They killed Breha."

Ahsoka took a shaky breath. There would be time to fall apart about that later. But not if she couldn't talk Vader out this insanity.

She continued, "And as much as I want to march up to the Imperial Palace and plunge my lightsaber through Sidious' heart if he even has one, I know that'll just cause problems for everyone. That will ruin everything we worked for."

He was unmoved. That much Ahsoka was sure of through the dark, chaotic spiral he was descending into.

"Vader, come on. We'll figure it out. Just… please. Don't do this. Don't do this to me. I can't lose you to Palpatine. Not again," Ahsoka pleaded.

The clouds above paused their gathering, and everything was suddenly very still—even the Force. The last time Ahsoka remembered this kind of stillness in the Force was in the moments before the Order fell while she sat with Padmé in her apartment, waiting for Anakin to return. Sometimes, she wondered what might have happened if Anakin had come back to the apartment before pledging himself to Sidious.

It didn't matter.

Right now, what did matter is that in this moment, he seemed to be willing to hear her out. All she had to do was find the right words. She'd rarely been good at that in the past when it came to Vader.

Finally, Ahsoka dropped her hands from her hips and said quietly, "You know, sometimes I just want to say to hell with all this. The Rebellion. The Empire. The galaxy. Just take the twins and go somewhere so beyond the Empire's reach and map out wild space or something and drag you along for the ride." She let out a small laugh. "But I know you'd have no peace as long as Palpatine were alive, if you didn't find a way to correct your failures. And I wouldn't leave you to fight him on your own."

"What are you saying?" Vader asked, bluntly but softy.

"I'm saying," Ahsoka began and then paused to consider her next words. She took a deep breath and said, "I'm saying that I fight for a lot of reasons, Vader. But you've become the most important. It was hypocritical of me to demand you not to damn the galaxy for me. Because sometimes I'm not sure that I wouldn't for you." Because truthfully, Ahsoka still wasn't sure she wouldn't be damning the galaxy by helping him to gain control of it once Palpatine was dead. She still wasn't sure that the good left in him was enough. She shook her head of the thought. "I…"

Vader turned to face her, closing the distance between then and cocking his head sideways, curiosity thrumming across their bond along with something else. Something that had redirected the energy of the all-consuming darkness that had threatened to take his ability to reason. Something that had wrestled the darkness, while still all-consuming, back under his control as he wrapped it around her.

Not letting it intimidate her because she knew Vader wouldn't hurt her—not anymore—nor would he allow the darkness to, she swallowed and breathed, "I love you. If something happened to you, I don't know if my heart could take it." She shook her head. "Worse than that. You are my heart."

There was no guarantee that he would remember the significance of her utterance with it being so long since she'd explained it when Leia asked him about it in reference to Padmé. But Ahsoka didn't think he needed to remember it. He kissed her. She returned the gesture. The significance of her words pulsing across their bond. The Force, which had been so still and silent, sang to life between them as something tipped and a destiny was written. This time, when he pulled her closer to him, she let him, pressing their bodies flush against each other's while she let one of her hands tangle into his hair. One of his gloved hands, the mecha one, trailed up and down her back lek. She shivered under his touch, a moan vibrating from her lips and into their kiss.

Ahsoka pulled away first. Vader pulled her back. She let him, allowing one more kiss before she pulled away again while she still had the presence of mind to remember that Luke, Leia, and Winter were still back on the ship, and they still weren't safe.

"We have to go," she said, eyes still half-lidded, lips only a hairsbreadth from his.

He relented. Reluctantly—very reluctantly—as he gathered the dark side back under his control before letting her go. They silently walked back to the ship, a tension between them that was neither awkward nor unpleasant.

When they returned, Ahsoka found that Luke, Leia, and Winter had gone into one of the two small rooms on the ship and climbed into the bunk together. They were awake again, despite their clear exhaustion. Ahsoka joined them, and they all climbed on her, not minding the cramped space of the bunk while Vader took them back into space to continue their journey.

Five hours later, Vader helped Ahsoka carry the three sleeping children into one of the handful of safehouses Ahsoka prepared scattered across the galaxy. It resided on an ocean planet whose only landmasses were small isolated islands peppered across its oceans. Though the islands had beautiful beaches of sand, it was marred by the planet's perpetual foggy overcast. The overcast and distance from any major hyperspace lanes and routes made it unideal for anyone that might have thought to turn it into a vacation planet. The isolation from other worlds and major hyperspace lanes would have been ideal for a rebel base, but the islands were too small, scattered, or unstable to support the construction of something as massive as a rebellion base. The islands of the planet were stable enough to support the construction of a two-bedroom cabin just on the edge of the forest and beach.

Ahsoka skipped over getting the children into a clean change of clothes, for now, not having the heart nor the energy to wake them up. Instead, she only took off their shoes and lined them neatly in a corner before tucking them in bed. Meanwhile, Vader went back to the ship to contact either Diya or Sabé, maybe even Obi-wan if he couldn't get in touch with either of the former, to let them know their status.

When she was done with the children, she went to the other bedroom, kicked off her boots, and lay on the bed to wait. Vader arrived not too long later, entering the room and closing the door behind him. He hung near the door, watching her, and Ahsoka sat up on her elbows and watched him in return. She sensed his presence, dark and consuming but just restrained, even across their bond. But she got the fleeting sense of possession, the desire to consume her, the sentiment that she was his. The desire it elicited from her frightened her a few weeks ago. Now, she embraced it.

Neither of them had gotten much sleep in the last few days, but they were both too wired right now to rest. And Ahsoka wanted this.

She needed it.

She sat all the way up, scooted up to the edge of the bed, and raised a coy eye marking at Vader.

"Yours to do what with?" she asked

He crossed the distance between them, pulled her up to him and kissed her with the same intensity and thoroughness that he approached everything else. Their bond flared to life, the ever-present warmth that thrummed across it now a searing heat that washed over Ahsoka's body.

Their kisses, their explorations, the eventual consummation of their relationship were like everything else in their complicated relationship. A battle for dominance and control. An exercise in seeing who could one-up the other.

Vader won.

But only because Ahsoka let him.

And as they laid together afterward, naked, sweaty, bodies against each other's with Ahsoka leaning into his side with her head against his shoulder while he lay on his back, she came to a realization.

"We—" She paused to breathe, enjoying the languid feeling of her body against his own languid one. She tried again. "We are both stupid."

"Are we?"

"We should have done this a long time ago."

"We should have."

"Beats trying to kill each other every time we get the chance."

A pause. "Not by much. They might be even."

Ahsoka snorted and lazily hit him where her freer hand was resting on his hip. "Sadist."

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**AN: **1) Agreed Ahsoka. Agreed.

2) For the full explicit sex scene (and the full chapter), again, it can be found on archive of our own.

3) It's not a Star Wars story without a woman pleading with a Skywalker not to do something that could be devastating.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed! Review, please! I appreciate and value your insights.


	65. Princess

**Chapter Sixty-Five: Princess**

Vader awoke to weight straddling his lower abdomen and slow, gentle strokes up and down his chest and part of his neck. He focused on the sensation, figuring out very quickly that the weight was Ahsoka and the strokes were her fingers ghosting across his chest. Ghosting across the scar on his chest.

She knew he was awake, but he didn't open his eyes as she traced the scar from just beneath his ribs, all the way up to the top of his neck and back down.

"Is this from Mustafar?"

"Yes."

Ahsoka hummed and retraced it a few times, and it occurred to Vader that she'd never seen it. She likely hadn't paid it any attention hours ago when he'd first bared himself to her, both preoccupied with other matters.

"I thought I killed you," Ahsoka muttered absently, still tracing the scar. "I wanted to think I didn't. I thought there might be a possibility that I didn't, but… This should have killed you. I didn't find out that I didn't until later. I first suspected that was true when I heard your name for the first time, your new one, on the news. Then on Empire Day, May had the celebrations on, and I saw you standing next to Palpatine. I knew it was you even behind the mask. May couldn't get me to come out my room for the rest of the day." She stopped talking, but Vader got the feeling she wasn't done. "How did this not kill you? How did I not kill you?"

He opened his eyes to gaze upon her contemplative expression.

"The Force. Sheer willpower?" Vader suggested. Truthfully, he didn't know. What he did remember from the immediate aftermath were choked, gasping breaths made more difficult from the thick, humid Mustafar air. An eternity that might have only been minutes before Palpatine arrived and he'd been taken back to Imperial Center. A surgery where droids had sewn him back together, replacing part of his ribs and lungs with metal, under just enough sedation to be unable to move and disturb their work but not enough to be unaware of what was happening.

She traced her finger back up again. This time, she moved her hand over to his right shoulder and what was left of his flesh arm before it turned to durasteel, tracing over the puckered pink and red flesh from where the heat from the lava next to him burned through his upper clothes on that side.

Her hand went back to the other scar.

"Did you hate me for it?"

"Yes."

"Do you still?"

"No."

"How?"

"Obi-wan would have done worse. I've seen what would have happened if you hadn't been there."

"But I was there. And I stopped him. And _I_ did this."

Vader sighed. Even when he wanted to absolve her of her supposed sins, she resisted him. And now she was going to insist on an answer, regardless of the fact that he loathed to give it to her.

"When Sidious began teaching me the ways of the Sith—what he wanted me to know anyway—he would force me to meditate on the most painful and terrible parts of my former life to turn me into the mindless, dark side monstrosity and attack beast that he wanted me to be. That memory was one of the ones I constantly went back to. I've been over it dozens, hundreds, thousands of times. And at some point, I just stopped hating you for it. I tried to hang onto it. But the more I realized that the only reason you were in the position was because I cornered you, the more I just couldn't anymore."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I almost… I might have killed you. You did what you had to. Besides, it was an accidental lucky shot," he added, running a hand up and down her thigh.

She retraced the scar before asking, "What about now?"

"Now what?"

"You don't hate me anymore. So what do you feel for me?"

Vader had walked right into that one, but he sensed Ahsoka hadn't been trying to corner him. It was natural that if he didn't hate her, he must feel something else.

"If this is your way of asking me if I love you, it's too dangerous for that. Allowing myself to love the twins is one thing but you…. You're overwhelming. Sidious would sense it, and then you'd be in even more danger than you already are. There's no room for me to feel that way for you right now."

He expected her disappointment. Maybe even her anger. Instead, she smirked and brought his flesh hand to her mouth.

"And yet, you'd probably damn the galaxy for me. That's what you told me, at least." She grinned and nipped playfully on his middle finger. "That's not the way any of this works."

She leaned down and began to press openmouthed kissed to his chest, creating a trail toward his navel.

A knock on the door interrupted her.

"Right," she said, sitting back up. "We do have younglings." She crawled off him and got up, but rather than heading to the door, she headed to the fresher. "You better get that."

"Why me? They probably want you."

Another knock.

"Coming," Ahsoka said to the door. She then directed to him, "Because it's a lot easier for you to throw something on and be presentable than it is for me. I'm sure you'll manage."

He watched her sashay into the fresher and close the door behind her. He stared after her until the knocking came again. He dragged himself out of bed, pulled on his trousers, and opened the door. Not to find a brunette little girl or a blonde little boy but a platinum-haired little girl with big brown eyes staring up at him. At some point, she'd cleaned herself up and discarded her stained white dress for a pair of pajama shorts and a t-shirt.

"Princess," he said. He wasn't prepared for how to deal with this child. They were strangers to each other.

"Oh, I…" she trailed off, peeking behind him to look for Ahsoka. When she didn't find her, the girl looked back up at him and said, "I was just looking for Aunt 'Soka. Lulu's and Leia's birthday was yesterday. I think. And we didn't get a chance to make the pastry for them. It was yesterday, but we can't just miss it!"

There were a lot of things for Vader to unpack. First being that Winter still called Luke "Lulu," much to Luke's chagrin a few years ago. Despite their best efforts, Ahsoka told him, the princess had found difficulty in pronouncing his son's name when she was younger. Apparently, Winter never let go of the habit. Second was the twins' birthday. Not yesterday but two days ago for certain. Third, the princess was very concerned about making sure they made the twins their traditional Naboo Birthday Pastry. It seemed to be something very minuscule for the girl to be concerned about in the grand scheme of things. Her home planet had been invaded and occupied by the Empire, she'd been whisked away to safety, and she'd lost her mother.

Suddenly, Vader saw his former self as a child standing in her place, shyly asking his new Jedi master for spare parts to build a gadget, to go watch speeder traffic, to spend time with his new friend, the Chancellor. Anything to take his mind away from his mother—not dead but on the other side of the galaxy and still chained in slavery. To hide the sadness and fear and anger and pain that a Jedi wasn't supposed to feel. To get any sense of stability and normality.

He saw another blonde-haired child, looking up him, hiding from the soldiers that had invaded their home, and thinking an ally had come to save them. Children Ahsoka would have died for. Like she would for Luke and Leia.

Those images cleared, and he saw the princess again. His children's friend and companion. Whose mother had died protecting children that weren't hers knowing she'd be leaving her own child behind.

"Perhaps," he began slowly, "Ahsoka has something stored in the kitchen that we can use to make it."

Winter nodded, rubbing her eyes—whether to rub away sleep or tears, Vader didn't know.

The first thing Winter did when they got to the small kitchen was check the fridge.

"Oh!" the girl exclaimed as she took out a carton of eggs from some animal. "We need these."

Winter then went over to the counter where one of the high cabinets were and looked around. Not finding whatever it was she was looking for, she looked at Vader.

"Um… Can you… I can't reach." Winter looked down at her feet shyly before looking up a Vader again. "Can you help me get up there?"

Rather than go over to her, Vader wrapped the Force around the child and levitated her into the air. She squeaked in surprise and then looked at him with wide eyes. He answered her questioning gaze with a shrug, to which she giggled before opening the cabinet. She only found a few dishes, and Vader moved her to the next cabinet, where the girl apparently found some of the things she needed, including a jar of preserved orange-colored fruit. As she took each item out, Vader grabbed them with the Force and placed them on the counter behind her until she had everything she needed. After Vader put the girl back on the ground, she turned around to look in the cabinet under the isle and took out a bowl and measuring tools. Then she went through all the drawers until she found utensils.

"Okay," she declared. "I think we have everything."

The girl was then met with the problem of not being high enough to reach over the counter. Rather than looking to Vader, she looked at the small table and transported her items there in four trips before climbing onto her knees on a chair. Finally, it occurred to Vader that he should actually ask the child if she knew what she was doing.

Winter shrugged a little in response and said, "I think so. I've helped Aunt 'Soka with it before."

That wasn't reassuring. Winter seemed to sense the sentiment.

"Um… You know how to make it, right? To make sure I don't do it wrong," the princess said.

"Oh, no. He's hopeless when it comes to baking. Doesn't have the patience for all the waiting involved," Ahsoka said as she came into the room.

She walked past him to join Winter at the table, helping her sort the ingredients before grabbing the flour first. His task done, Vader started to back out the room. He needed to contact his commander and find out what was going on in the Empire. Three and a half days didn't seem long, but in the aftermath of a rebel attack and what was soon to be war, much could have happened.

"Where are you going?" Ahsoka asked. "You have to help too. The more people who help make the pastry, the better."

He almost argued with her, but this was only the second time in their life that Vader had been present to be part of the twins' birthday celebration. There was no telling when there would be another chance. Not for a few years, at least. The Empire could wait for now.

Despite Ahsoka's insistence that he stay and help, his role was reduced only to watching Winter and Ahsoka measure out the ingredients until Ahsoka tasked Vader with mixing everything together. Apparently, it was possible to even mess that up.

"You're being too rough with your hands. You have to be gentler," Ahsoka said as she helped Winter push her chair to the stove to warm up the preserved fruit.

Vader scowled, trying to lighten his hand. Then he smirked to himself and sent the image of her not complaining that he had been too rough with his hands a few hours ago. He pretended not to notice the glare she sent his way. It was worth the initial startled, wide-eyed look and the flush of her lekku.

They worked in silence until it came time for Vader to bring the dough over, and Winter turned to him, still stirring the preserved fruit.

"Okay! Time for the dough…" Winter frowned.

"What?" Ahsoka asked.

Winter stared for a long time before saying, "I don't… What do I call you?"

Only for Vader could the answer to such a simple question be so complicated. Ahsoka didn't seem to think so.

With a grin, she said, "You can call him Uncle V."

"You will _not_ call me that."

"Then what do I call you?" Winter asked.

Revealing to the child that he was Darth Vader was out of the question. No doubt he was a figure from her nightmares, someone her parents told her about to keep her from inadvertently speaking out publicly against the Empire. Then again, Luke and Leia appeared to have revealed some details about him to her. There was no telling what, though.

"I am not your uncle," Vader said, handing the dough to Ahsoka.

"Well, Aunt 'Soka is Luke's and Leia's mom, and she's my aunt. So since you're their dad, you have to be my uncle."

Vader was positive her mother would have had something to say about that. He was sure her father would have something to say about that.

"Uncle V," Winter decided with a giggle.

"I blame you for this," Vader said to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka only sent a cheeky grin his way as she and Winter poured part of the hot preserved fruit into the flat pocket they'd made in each square-shaped pastry. Not long after they put it in the oven, Vader sensed Luke and Leia approaching.

"That smells good," Luke said.

"No!" Winter said, rushing to the hall to block Luke's and Leia's way. "You can't come in yet. It's not ready."

"We already know what it is, Winter," Leia pointed out.

"We do it every year," Luke added.

They both sounded tired. Not physically, but something akin to the way everyone had started to sound as the Clone Wars dragged on. Nine-year-old children shouldn't sound like that. Sound so weary.

"It's _tradition_," Winter pressed.

Luke and Leia paused, staring at Winter still, but Vader sensed a mental exchange between them. Then, they both rolled their eyes and said, "Whatever, Winter," and went back the way they'd come.

Not more than ten minutes later, Ahsoka took the pastries out the oven and put them on plates. Winter poured the remaining hot fruit on top and then called the twins back into the kitchen. They all gathered around the small table with the twins in front of their respective pastries. Silence followed. A silence Vader was sure from the one birthday he'd been present was supposed to be filled with some traditional phrase. For some reason, no one wanted to say it.

"For the sweetness of the year gone," Luke finally said, unenthusiastically.

"And for the sweetness of the year to come," Leia continued.

"Even when it's not always sweet," Winter whispered.

The Force stilled around them. A calm before the storm.

"Some start," Luke muttered.

"Technically, it was the end," Leia corrected.

Winter's face crumpled, and she burst into tears. Luke and Leia did the same in the next moment. Closest to Luke and Leia, Ahsoka gathered the two to her first. Even she looked like she was barely holding herself together, though. She reached for Winter, but the princess pulled away and ran out the cabin.

"Vader, follow her."

"And do what?"

"Make sure she doesn't get lost on an island with Force knows what kind of predators. Or go into the ocean!"

Ahsoka knew very well what he'd meant. Then again, maybe it had gone over her head in the chaos of two crying children in her arms.

He didn't have to go far to find Winter. She was sitting on the edge of the beach, just close enough to get her feet wet when the gentle tide came in. She shivered. And Vader saw another boy, just separated from his mother, sitting by himself and shivering from the cold of space. And a dark-haired girl who the boy hadn't known was a child queen came to check on him.

"I've never seen a beach before. Not for real," Winter murmured as she dug her hands through the wet sand and picked out small shells. "On Alderaan, all we have is a lot of rivers and mountains and snow. And it's always cold. I hate the cold. And the snow."

Tell him to lead troops to do the impossible, and Vader knew exactly what to do. Tell him to comfort a child who'd just lost their mother, and Vader was comically out of his element.

"It's better than sand," Vader decided to say.

It was the right thing to say because Winter laughed a little and said, "Sand is great."

"You'd change your mind if you lived on a desert planet. There's no water anywhere. Or trees. Or mountains."

"No way," Winter said, looking up at him with accusing brown eyes.

"I have no reason to lie to you, princess."

Winter still looked skeptical but shrugged and turned back to the sand. "I miss her." She didn't have to say who. "Luke's and Leia's first mother died too. They say they miss her. But… I don't think they miss her like this."

"No. They do not," Vader agreed.

The twins had fleeting impressions of Padmé. The sense that someone else was supposed to be with them. But only in addition to Ahsoka. Vader very much doubted either of his children would wish for a universe where they weren't calling Ahsoka their mama. She was the only mother they'd known. They never had the chance to know Padmé. They didn't miss her like Winter missed Breha. They didn't miss her like a blonde boy from a desert planet missed his mother. They didn't know the real pain that came with losing a mother that you had the chance to get to know and remember.

"Mommy said that one day we all return home to Mother Alderaan. And even though when people return to her it's sad, we should be happy that they get to see her again. I know my mommy's with Mother Alderaan now, but I'm not happy for her. I'm sad for me," Winter sniffed, rubbing her eyes, heedless to the fact that she was getting sand all over her face. "It feels like I won't ever be happy again."

There was a time that Vader would have agreed with her. His mother's death devastated him. But Padmé, in her eternal kindness, had been there to help him pick up the pieces even when she shouldn't have. Even when she should have feared him, condemned him for what he'd done in revenge. He'd been his happiest with her, even when the war and the Jedi were making him miserable. Then he lost Padmé, and he lost himself more than he already had been, convinced he could only suffer through a life of pain, misery, and hate. And then he found Ahsoka again. She had feared him, loathe as she was to admit it. She had condemned him. But despite that, she'd taken a risk and let him into his children's lives when she had every reason to believe he was a danger to them. Let him back into her life, hateful and spiteful as their new beginning had been, even with every reason to believe he was a danger to her.

"You will be," Vader finally answered. "There will always be something else to make you happy again if you allow it."

After the rage and hate against the injustice and the intense pain of the loss. If one got through it. He almost hadn't.

"You think so, Uncle V?" Winter asked, still looking at the sand.

"I know so."

* * *

**AN: **1) Many of you asked about Ahsoka and her feelings about her lucky shot against Vader on Mustafar. Well. Here it is. Yes, she feels guilty about it. But it wasn't something I could just shoehorn into the story, especially when I don't think they were necessarily vulnerable enough around each other to have that conversation. So here it is. Sixty chapters later.

2) I was not going to bring Winter into this and not give her something to do, and what she has to do is important. I've hinted at it before but never outright said it given the main narrators of this story, both of whom aren't always reliable. Although he says otherwise, Vader might have a few more regrets about Jedi younglings and some of his darker deeds than he's let on. I know some of you thought that maybe he should have had those feelings given that he has two young children. But of course, he loves his children. So hence Winter, a child he has no history with but is clearly so important to his family, was so important to the woman who died protecting that family has an effect on him. It is not a spoiler to say that Winter doesn't get an interlude in this story. But if she had, this chapter would have been it.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review, please. I enjoy your insights.


	66. Sins

**Chapter Sixty-Six: Sins**

Though the three children eventually calmed down, their somber moods remained. After forcing themselves through the pastry and eating on a few rations, they went back to bed. More than physical exhaustion, Vader got the distinct feeling they were emotionally drained.

All of them gave Ahsoka tight hugs and a kiss on her cheek. Luke and Leia followed suit with Vader before starting for their room. Winter hesitated, though. Finally, she made her way to Vader, gave him a quick hug, and said, "Thank you," before following Leia and Luke.

"Wow," Ahsoka muttered. "What did you say to her?"

"Nothing."

"You had to. She likes you."

"She's a child. She doesn't know any better," Vader said, standing and offering a hand to her to lead her back into the other bedroom.

"Maybe, but it usually takes her a long time to warm up to people. And when I say that, I don't mean she's untrusting like Leia. She's just very shy," Ahsoka explained as they sat against the back of the bed.

As she leaned to curl onto his chest, Vader said, "I can't imagine Bail Organa will be happy about that."

The shift in Ahsoka's mood was stark and sudden. Gone was the careful, even-keeled demeanor she'd been maintaining and brought to the forefront was the turmoil and conflict that Vader knew had been broiling in her since they left Tatooine. He knew from the long course of their relationship that forcing her to talk before she was ready only ever led to them fighting first. Tactless Vader may be most of the time, but he was sensitive enough to the surrounding situation not to push it before. His own turmoil had also effectively distracted him. Now…

Before Vader could press, Ahsoka revealed the reason for her reaction. Vader thought it would be having to break the news to the man that his wife had been killed.

It wasn't.

"I talked to Mon earlier. Before helping Winter make the birthday pastry. Bail hasn't checked in yet. That last thing we know was that he was on Imperial Center for the days leading up to Empire Day. He was supposed to go back to Alderaan for the celebrations. But he never showed, and no one can get in contact with him," she explained. "And Luke and Leia told me more about what happened on Alderaan. They said it was their handmaiden who betrayed us. They threatened her family, and she told them about Luke and Leia. Luke said Tarkin kept asking about the Jedi children and their Jedi mother. I don't know what else Palpatine knows. But I think he's been planning to strike Alderaan for a long time, and he chose Empire Day for the same reason we chose it. He knew no one would expect it."

She stopped, but Vader sensed there was more. He clenched his fist in anticipation.

"Leia was the one that killed Tarkin."

Vader hadn't been expecting that one.

"How did she manage that?"

"I don't know. Underestimated her? Didn't think she'd have the courage to do it? She just said he took her first blaster and didn't know she'd hidden a second. When he gave the order to kill Breha, she took it out and shot him. She's not really sure if he was looking away or distracted or what because it all happened so fast."

Somehow, the revelation that Leia shot Tarkin was both shocking and not. Shocking, because it was hard to reconcile Leia—all fire and outspokenness but also so kind with her mother's sharp sense of justice and the desire to do the right thing—with the person who killed Tarkin, a fierce and hardened war veteran since before the girl was even conceived. Not shocking because he'd always known that one day Leia would become a vicious and unforgiving warrior. He wished it didn't have to happen so soon.

Ahsoka speaking again snapped Vader out his thoughts.

"She saw them shoot Breha. They all did, but Leia was standing right there when it happened." Another pause. "This is my fault. Something told me to take them from Alderaan and with me to Tatooine, and I didn't listen to it. I thought I was just being paranoid. I thought if they suddenly disappeared right before Empire Day, it would make Alderaan a target. But that happened anyway, and now I've traumatized my kids and gotten Breha killed and Bail missing all because I didn't make the right call."

"It's not your fault. Alderaan was likely already a target. That wouldn't have changed because you took the twins earlier. All that would have done is probably got Breha killed anyway and the princess taken into Imperial custody."

Ahsoka pulled away from him, overwhelmed by grief and sadness that was quickly spiraling into anger.

"Doesn't matter. They were there because of me and the twins."

"Queen Breha knew what she was getting into when she offered her protection to you."

"And I should have told her no," Ahsoka snapped. "I should have… I don't know."

The last time he'd seen Ahsoka cry was after her trial. She'd come close over the years but had too much pride to let him see her in such a moment of vulnerability, knowing that he'd find a way to use it against her to his own ends. That he'd dismiss it and deride her for her weakness. That she was willing to now would have informed him how much she was blaming herself and beating herself up without sensing her guilt in the Force.

"It wasn't your fault."

"Vader—"

"It was mine."

Ahsoka turned to face him again, confusion written on her features. Inside him, the dark side roared against the sudden onset of guilt he felt. Offering its comforting brace. Offering to give him something or someone else to place the blame with. Offering to contort the truth of the matter so he didn't have to face his shortcomings. His faults. His failures. But just a couple of weeks ago, he'd promised he wouldn't mess this up again. He couldn't have one last conversation with Padmé. But he could have this one with Ahsoka, at least. He could absolve her of a guilt that wasn't hers to bear.

"What are you talking about?" Ahsoka asked.

He brought the dark side to heel and said, "You were right. I did this. I joined Palpatine. I eliminated every possible threat to his rule. Padmé's death was my fault." _More than just your fault_, a voice whispered. He allowed the dark side to have that one. "If not for any of that, if not for my shortsightedness, if I had just seen what Palpatine was doing, you wouldn't be in this position. It's… It's my fault, and I'm sorry for doing that to you."

She stared at him, lips pursed, eyes cautious, brow furrowed.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Darth Vader?" she asked.

"Seriously?"

"Very. You just…" A genuinely perplexed expression crossed her face. "You just apologized to me." She paused. "You've never done that before. Not on this side of things."

Since the rise of the Empire, Vader knew she meant.

Vader resisted the urge to physically wince at both her statement and her genuine confusion. As though she'd never expected an apology from him despite all the things she'd rightfully accused him of doing and all the problems he'd caused in her life.

"I should have. A long time ago."

She continued to stare at him, still looking genuinely perplexed about what to do with his apology. It said a lot about how cruel he probably could be to her that she knew better how to react when he pointed a lightsaber at her or lashed out in anger at her than when he actually tried to be kind to her. He was going to have to change that. At least to her. Let the rest of the galaxy deal with the monster they knew him to be. Ahsoka though… she didn't deserve that.

Her expression softened. And she crawled back over to sit in front of him and took his hands, mecha and flesh, in her bronze ones.

"I can't say you're wrong," Ahsoka stated. "I wouldn't have to deal with any of this if it weren't for you. But I wouldn't change it. I like being Luke's and Leia's mother. I like all the relationships and bonds I've forged with people over the years. I even enjoy the politics of running the Rebellion sometimes." She averted her gaze and then added, "And I… I like being with you. Kriffed up as it is, I wouldn't have any of that if it hadn't been for what you did first. Despite all that, despite all the hurt you caused to a lot of people by helping Palpatine, if we could go back and undo it, I don't think I'd want to. Some people would probably say that makes me as much of a monster as you are." Ahsoka looked back up at him with determined blue eyes. "But if that does, so be it. I'll bear the fault of your sins with you."

"You shouldn't have to."

"No. But I choose to." A smile and then, "Thank you for the apology, though. I appreciate it."

Their bond hummed with warmth, and Vader was beginning to suspect that Ahsoka being truly happy and open with him was the trigger. Who knew he could still elicit such a reaction in someone, especially given their sordid history?

Something like disapproval came from her, and she maneuvered onto her knees and straddled him. She grabbed his head in her hands, curling her fingers in his hair, and kissed his brow.

"Don't be like that. Don't spoil this, Anakin," she whispered.

"I don't deserve this."

"That's why you should enjoy it anyway."

She began to pepper kisses on his face. One of her hands left his hair, and she lightly scraped her nails down the side of his neck, his chest, the touch causing his heart to begin to race with anticipation. Tipping his head back, she looked down at him, eyes cloudy with desire before she lowered her mouth to suck on his bottom lip, nipping on it between her teeth before letting it go.

The urge to take control, to flip them over, to have her under him again, came over him. She sensed the thought.

"But I like you like this," she parroted into his ear. "Out of your own control. In mine."

She ran her thumb over his tip and gave a firm tug, while at the same time nipping on the lobe of his ear. A shock went through him, all the way down his spine, spreading pleasant heat through his body. Kriff.

"Then take control. For real," he challenged.

Having never backed down from any challenge that he'd given her before, she raised an eye marking at him and accepted.

When they were done, he lazily lolled her forehead against his as they both came down, a soft clicking whine escaping her. He let out a moan in response, putting the knuckle of his pointer mecha finger against sweaty, naked her stomach and caressing it in gentle circles. He opened his eyes to look at her, eyes closed, facial features—usually so sharp and aware—softened, expression and demeanor serene as she enjoyed the peaceful moment. Probably the last time for a while that she would experience some semblance of it. Because after this, there was the Rebellion and a war to get back to. Neither were known to be peaceful undertakings despite the end goal of each to be, presumably, peace.

_I won't be the next woman you damn the galaxy for._

Vader understood the sentiment. They were in this mess because he'd been willing to damn the entire galaxy for his previous love. And looking up at Ahsoka, enjoying what he knew was a rare moment of peace, he wondered how could he not? Palpatine would chase her when he found out she was alive. Not just because she was leading a rebellion against him but because of her connection to his old life alone. Never mind if he found out that she meant even more to him in this new one. If Palpatine got her within his grasps, how could he not damn the galaxy for her if he knew for sure that that it would save her and she could have more moments like this?

The answer to his ponderings was in his very question.

Because for her, it wouldn't be peace. Ahsoka had always been a fighter. She'd have no peace knowing he'd committed some atrocity in her name. She'd have no peace until she mitigated the damage his atrocity had wrought. She'd have no happiness if he destroyed the things she'd just admitting to loving. The galaxy. The rebellion. The people in it. Already, she was willing to bear the burden of his sins. Something sure to cause controversy and conflict as they attempted to repair the galaxy and make the Empire into something that resembled a functioning government and actually secured the people in it.

Besides, Palpatine lied the first time. He'd lie again if it meant having all Vader's loyalties and devotions to himself.

Vader would just have to make sure Ahsoka stayed out Palpatine's grasp then. Even if that meant facing Palpatine alone when it came down to it. Even if it meant dying to kill the man so she could rebuild the galaxy into something great. Hopefully, he wouldn't, butPalpatine always had something up his sleeve.

Eventually, she placed a kiss on his cheek and climbed off him. They both went to clean themselves up and throw on something to sleep in, the evening chill of the planet not conducive to sleeping naked, no matter how warm their bodies were. Then they both went back to bed to get a much-needed rest.

Only ever able to manage a few hours of sleep at a time and feeling refreshed enough from when they'd slept just after arriving on the planet that morning, Vader awoke a short time later when night had wholly fallen on the planet. Next to him, Ahsoka continued to peacefully slumber, and he wondered if this would be the last time for a while that she would get anything resembling a peaceful night's rest.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts and awoke Ahsoka, her blue eyes, just slightly glowing in the dark, snapping open.

He used the Force to open the door and found Luke, Leia, and Winter.

"Um…" Leia began. "Can we…"

"Can we sleep in here?" Luke blurted out. He always did have a lot less pride than his sister.

"Come on, little ones," Ahsoka said.

If they were surprised to see him and Ahsoka sharing the same bed, neither child commented on it as they climbed into bed on either side of them.

Winter stayed at the door, shuffling her feet. Finally, she asked in a shy whisper, "Can I come too?"

"Stop being ridiculous, Winter," Leia scoffed. "Of course, you can. You think we weren't asking for you too?"

"She's right," Ahsoka said with a smile in her voice. "You are being ridiculous, little one."

Winter scrambled to the bed, climbing in on the side with Ahsoka and Leia.

"Thank you, Aunt 'Soka. Thank you, Uncle V," Winter whispered politely.

Silence.

Then, "Uncle V?" both Luke and Leia chimed.

A short pause, and all three children and Ahsoka burst into a fit of giggles Vader's expense.

_Oh, how the mighty Sith Lord has fallen_, Ahsoka teased across their bond.

Vader swallowed his irritation, allowing them to have their moment of short-lived peace.

* * *

**AN: **This site is very frustrating to me right now. This is yet another chapter that had a short sex scene (700 words or so) and I had to take it out. I didn't think I would be as frustrated having to do that as I was until I got to having to edit this down and realized there was no good way to convey what the sex scene conveys without more revising work than I expected there to be. Thus, if the transition at that part seems a little jarring and sloppy, I am aware. I just decided to say eff all to it. If you would like to read the full explicit version that I am relatively happy with, please head over to archive of our own. Same pen name and same title.

After this story is done, I am pretty certain that this will be my last work on this site. The restriction of my creative freedom is one of the reasons, but also because the formatting is outdated, uploading on here is a pain, and don't talk about if I want to make small edits here and there. That's why there are some typos in a few chapters on this site that I won't fix because of all the steps I have to go through to change it. I know they are there. They are fixed on ao3 (for the most part). It's too much trouble to change here.

Anywho, enough rambling. Hope you enjoyed. Review, please.


	67. Declaration

**Chapter Sixty-Seven: Declaration**

As much as Ahsoka enjoyed the brief respite of the last two days, even with the cloud of grief and trauma looming over, she had to get back to the Rebellion. And Vader had to get back to the Empire. She sat on the steps of the safe house, enjoying the last moments of quiet while waiting for Vader's escort to get here. Eventually, Vader came to join her. She reached over without looking from the ocean and grabbed his hand, holding it in the space between them.

"I've been thinking," Vader began.

"So have I," Ahsoka said. "But you first."

"The reason Palpatine's been so frustratingly successful and hard to depose of is that he has people willing to help him enforce his rule. People who will try to enforce his will even when he's dead. No doubt that without them, his power is still great. But if defeating him and taking his empire was as easy as getting strong enough to best him in a duel, we could do that tomorrow if we wanted."

There was no cocky arrogance to his tone. Vader was simply stating a fact he believed to be true. The truth of which vibrated in the Force.

"Yeah. We could," she replied.

"But if someone defeats one or both of us, who is there left behind to make sure Palpatine is not only killed but can't continue to rule from the grave?"

Ahsoka sensed Vader didn't believe that would happen. But there was a lot of stuff they'd believed wouldn't happen that did. The fall of the Jedi. Vader turning to the dark side. Padmé's death. Her and Vader sitting here holding hands.

"Don't ever tell her that I said this," Vader warned, "but Diya's loyalty to you and her involvement with the Liberty Resistance proved advantageous to our ambitions. Without her laying the groundwork on our behalf, we never would have defeated Jabba, nor had the people in place to deal with his underlings and fill the power vacuum. I've experienced the same advantages bringing Sabé into our plan."

"What are you saying?"

"We need our own contingency. We're powerful in the Force. But our power means nothing if we don't have people who know what to do if we're not there to give the orders. We can't do this alone."

That Vader could admit something like that was a testament to the fact that he was no longer the young man he'd been from before the Empire. Not in the way Vader tried and failed to distinguish and disassociate himself from Anakin Skywalker like he wasn't still Anakin Skywalker with a name change, the dark side, and a lot less kriffs to give. But in a way that showed how much he'd matured over the years, let go of some of his old insecurities. Even a couple of years after the Empire's rise, he would have been loath to admit that he couldn't do something alone. He'd hardly wanted to admit that he needed her help. The old him would have just lit his lightsaber, charged full speed ahead, and hoped everything worked out. But he'd done that to disastrous results once. It made Ahsoka wonder if he would have eventually talked himself out of killing Sidious a couple of days ago himself even if she hadn't.

"You're right. We can't," Ahsoka finally said.

Now wasn't enough time to work out the details, though. They would do that later.

"What about you?" he asked.

"You're not going to like it. I don't like it but… Palpatine's going to know anyway. And you've got a part to play," Ahsoka said evenly. "When the Emperor tells you about Tarkin's mission, when he shows you that he found me and the twins, don't try to steer him away. Don't try to convince him they don't belong to you. Even if he acts like he doesn't believe they're yours, don't let him. Claim them."

Vader paused. "You want me to convince him that the twins are my children?"

"Yours and Padmé's," Ahsoka corrected.

"I thought the point of this entire ruse with letting everyone think you were the twins' birth mother was so that we wouldn't have to tell him even if he did find out about their existence."

"It was. And it did deter people from asking the right questions. But it's only a matter of time before they start gathering what little footage of the twins there is. They were publicly Winter's companions and part of the royal house. And it's only a matter of time before someone gets tortured into revealing my presence there if they don't already know. If you didn't already know, if Palpatine revealed to you with photo or security evidence, if he told you that I escaped Alderaan with my two human children and we were the Jedi mother and Jedi children group he sent Tarkin looking for, what would you assume?"

Vader's thoughts were open enough to her that he didn't have to verbally answer. Maybe Ahsoka hadn't known him better than anyone before the Clone War. That went to Padmé. But Vader had known Ahsoka better than anyone back then. He would have known if she'd had a lover before the end of the Clone War as sure as Ahsoka had known about him and Padmé. He would have known there was no way she'd been pregnant before the Clone War's end, especially when he'd seen her enough to know. He would have also known that she was the last person with Padmé before her death. He would have immediately known that Luke and Leia weren't her biological children. That the only reason she'd have a pair of younglings calling her their mother was that they were the children the galaxy thought died with Padmé. He would have known even if the Emperor tried to convince him otherwise.

"If you do anything other than insist they're yours and on tearing the galaxy apart to find us, he'll watch you closer than he already is. I don't like the idea of him knowing either, but we have to let him have this. If we don't, we might be giving him everything instead."

His grip on her hand tightened slightly. "I hate this."

"Me too."

"Something else is bothering you, though. Besides this," Vader pointed out.

Ahsoka sighed. She should have known…

"Rebellion stuff," she muttered. A gentle tug on their bond made Ahsoka roll her eyes and say, "You're so pushy. But what else is new? Okay… So, Diya, Obi-wan, and Rex told me that High Command is being obnoxious about making an official statement and declaration of war to the Empire. They keep saying that it's imperative to do it while the Rebellion is in the media. It's why I've got to get back. Before they lose patience and decide to let Mon do it. Diya has a lot of pull with communications and intelligence still, even though she's not over it anymore. They wouldn't do anything if Diya told them not to. And Mon and I disagree a lot, but she'd never do something like that without my okay. Still… maybe I should let Mon do it anyway."

Vader didn't say anything for a very long time, considering his words in a way he rarely ever did.

Then, he asked, "Why do you think that?"

"Because I'm a soldier, Vader. I'm no good with words. I'm good at war. But they want me to declare a war and inspire people to fight back and join us. I can't… This is outside my skillset. It doesn't help that the words they want me to say don't sound like me. I just… What if what I say isn't enough? What if I mess this up?"

She took her hand from his to cross her arms over her knees. Leading the Rebellion in the shadows was one thing. Leading them in the open? That was something else altogether.

"Forget about what High Command has planned for you to say or wants to hear, what you think the galaxy wants to hear, what you think I want to hear. You've always been at your best when you did what you felt was right, no matter what anyone had to say about it. If you do the same thing here, I'm sure you'll find the right thing to say," Vader assured her.

"Maybe."

"Not maybe. You can do this. I know you can. I trust you."

Ahsoka didn't think she'd ever get used to Vader's confidence in her. Even at their worst, he'd never doubted her abilities. Sometimes it felt like a lot to live up to. But he wouldn't say anything he didn't mean.

"Thanks." She paused and then added with a small smile, "Skyguy."

Irritation emanated from him, and he muttered, "You and your awful nicknames. Skyguy? _Uncle V_?"

"It's how I show my affection," she said with a grin.

"I like your other ways of showing affection."

Ahsoka felt herself flush. This new evolution of her and Vader's relationship was going to take some getting used to. They'd been building up to being lovers for a long time, but it was still new. Something she wasn't sure how to navigate yet. She supposed the only way to learn how to navigate it, though, was to—well—navigate it.

So because they'd decided it was okay now and he'd asked for it, she leaned over and reached a hand to turn his face to hers and pressed their lips together.

"Hey, Dad—oops!"

Ahsoka and Vader broke apart just in time to see both Luke and Leia about to turn on their heels and go back into the house.

"It's okay," Ahsoka called to them. They were going to have to have this conversation with the twins at some point. They might as well do it now. "Did you need something?"

"Um… We…" Leia trailed off before blurting, "So are you two a thing now? Officially?"

"Officially?" Ahsoka asked.

"I mean, you all have always felt weird," Leia said. Then she shook her head, and if not for what she was trying to find the words for, Ahsoka might have laughed. Leia rarely didn't have the words for what she wanted to say. "Not weird. Just… You've never acted the way you feel to me. And a lot of people do that. I just always thought it was… I don't know. You always felt like a thing. And you were sleeping together last night but… I wasn't sure if that meant anything."

"And how do you all feel about this?" Ahsoka asked.

Luke and Leia exchanged a look, shrugged simultaneously, and looked back at their parents.

"You're still our mom," Luke said.

"You're still our dad," Leia said.

They frowned at the same time.

"Does this mean you'll argue less?" Luke asked wryly.

Vader huffed and answered before Ahsoka could probe more, "Not a chance."

Luke shook his head. Leia rolled her eyes.

"I take it back. You _are_ weird," Leia murmured.

The two then turned on their heels and went back into the house.

"They took that well," Ahsoka stated.

"What did you expect?"

"I don't know. But the tantrum they threw when I told them about leaving Alderaan has started to make me expect the worst. I'm not going to catch a break when they're teenagers. Especially if they're anything like Obi-wan says you were as a teenager," Ahsoka added ruefully.

If Vader had anything to say, he didn't get the chance before a shuttle appeared in the atmosphere. His escort back to the Empire.

She went inside to gather the children to leave. By the time they came out, the ship had landed on the beach across from her own, and Vader was talking to a woman dressed in dark active wear with a hood covering her hair but not entirely covering her features. One of the maidens then. Ahsoka couldn't help but be amused at the sight.

"What?" Vader asked, turning his attention from the maiden, who dutifully stood before the ramp to wait for him.

"I just find it really hilarious that somehow you inherited Padmé's handmaidens. Didn't know they could be inherited after a spouse's death," she joked.

"They're not all her former handmaidens," Vader corrected, scowling some.

Ahsoka smirked in response.

"Bye, Dad," Luke and Leia said, hugging Vader around the legs.

Neither was particularly solemn, long used to good-byes with their father and long stretches of not seeing him afterward, neither knowing what had happened in the galaxy beyond the home they'd known on Alderaan. Neither knowing that it would probably be a long time before they saw him again.

"Good-bye, Luke. Good-bye, Leia."

When the two children backed away, he gave them a patient but firm look and said, "Behave for your mother. Be kind to her."

Ahsoka sharply turned her gaze to Vader, but he wasn't paying attention to her. Maybe he hadn't even noticed or thought anything about his wording. But this was the first time she'd ever heard him refer to her as the twins' mother. He'd long seemed to accept that the twins thought of her that way. But when he talked about her with the twins, he always used her name to refer to her, his subtle defiance always a reminder that he still thought Padmé should have been the one alive to raise them. A reminder that they'd both failed Padmé in the end. Ahsoka never held it against him. She battled her fair share of imposter syndrome and complicated feelings when it came to Padmé and raising the twins.

Ahsoka wondered what changed. Certainly not just that she'd taken him into her bed.

Vader exchanged something through the Force with the twins, and the two flinched. Luke looked down and began to kick up sand with his shoe while Leia looked to the side.

"She told you about that?" Leia asked, abashed.

"Yes."

"We did apologize," Luke tried.

He ran a hand through Leia's hair and then did the same for Luke's. "I understand your anger and disappointment. I'm not displeased with that. But we have to be careful how we treat the people who care for us, even when they do something to anger us. Particularly when they're only trying to help. Understand?"

Both children sighed. "Yes, Daddy."

Ahsoka watched the two head to her ship and shook her head. A maturing Anakin Skywalker was absolutely something she wasn't sure she could get used to.

She looked at Winter. "Coming?"

"Yes," the girl said. But first, she turned to Vader and looked up at him with an impassive but polite expression. Then she gave one of those secret smiles that Ahsoka remembered Breha used to give and curtsied as delicately as she'd been taught with a slight nod of the head. "It was an honor to meet you, Lord Vader. You're not as scary as everyone says."

She followed Luke and Leia into the ship.

Ahsoka determined to have a very long conversation with the three children about what exactly Luke and Leia had told Winter about all this and what the girl, clever and observant as her mother, had figured out.

With the children gone, silence fell between Ahsoka and Vader. For once, she was at a loss for what to do. Usually, when she and Vader parted ways, it was a mixture of witty jabs, bickering, coy smiles, and smug smirks before she got on her ship and left. Now, Ahsoka wasn't sure. Finally, she just opened their bond more and let the feelings and sentiments of the words she wasn't comfortable saying go across it. Acknowledgment and acceptance came back in return, along with a timid vibration of… something. Ahsoka wasn't sure what exactly. But it was pleasant. There was no need for grand gestures or words between them, especially when they'd already said what needed to be said.

Ahsoka settled for a final parting kiss before turning away and going to her ship.

On the way to the cockpit, she passed Leia and Winter playing dejarik with Threepio watching. Luke, though, was in the cockpit with Artoo, finishing up the startup sequence like Ahsoka had started to allow him to do over the last couple of years.

Compared to the tension of going to and fleeing Alderaan, and the heightened emotions on the way to their safe planet, the trip back to the Rebel Base was not only uneventful but felt a lot shorter. Once she landed, Mon was there to greet her.

"Thank goodness," the red-haired woman said, bringing Ahsoka into a hug. "We heard about what happened to Alderaan. Diya said that you'd gone to try to help the Queen. The Empire is reporting that she's missing. We'd hoped—"

"Breha's dead," Ahsoka stated, cutting Mon off. It was going to take a while for that to not be unreal when she said it. Because she could still remember expressing her woes about Vader, and Breha patiently listening and giving her gentle advice despite Ahsoka knowing she hated the man. Before Mon could express her condolences, Ahsoka said, "But I was able to get my children and the princess out."

She really didn't want condolences from anyone right now.

"Your children," Mon repeated quietly, and then looked down at Luke, Leia, and Winter.

Luke was looking around the almost empty hanger in barely contained glee while Leia was considering Mon. Winter stood not too far away speaking with Threepio and Artoo, a small smile on the girl's face at the droids' interaction about their opinions on the base.

"I didn't know you had children."

"Not many people do. They're going to after this, though," Ahsoka sighed. "Luke, Leia, Winter." All three children gave Ahsoka their attention. "This is Senator Mon Mothma."

They chorused a few variants of greetings.

"Nice to meet you all as well," Mon said absently, staring at Leia in particular.

Ahsoka understood why. Brown eyes and brown hair weren't very distinct human features. But when Leia wasn't scowling or glaring in a way that made her look distinctly like Vader, she was the spitting image of Padmé. Mon had been a close colleague of hers as much as Bail had.

Mon tore her gaze away and looked back at Ahsoka.

"I know you've probably had a long couple of days, and I'm sorry to spring all of this on you, but it's vital we make a statement about Empire Day as soon as possible if we want to keep the momentum we've acquired. Though the Empire has tried to suppress the news of its invasion of Alderaan, it's getting out, and people are getting anxious. They wonder if the Empire would do that to an old core world like Alderaan, what would they do everywhere else? And now that they have seen someone can deal a blow like we did to the Empire and that Naboo has defected, they are curious about who else might be out there and on their side," Mon explained.

Ahsoka would always appreciate Mon's ability to know when not to pry.

"Don't apologize. I came back here expecting having to get right to this. Is Obi-wan still here, or has he gone to the next base?"

As soon as they were done with their broadcast, they would be abandoning this base for good. Opening up their communication for such a broad galactic broadcast would open the base up to be tracked by the Empire.

"He's still here. In his quarters, I believe."

Ahsoka gestured for the children to follow her and Mon, while the droids stayed behind and continued to bicker. When they got to Obi-wan's room, she hardly got the chance to knock before Luke and Leia brushed past her to barge into the room. Thankfully, Obi-wan hadn't been doing anything important.

"Do you mind?" Ahsoka asked with an apologetic smile.

"I'd appreciate a warning next time, but never," Obi-wan assured before turning his attention to the three children.

Ahsoka left them to it and headed to command center with Mon. They ran into Diya on the way. She looked at Ahsoka and, aware that Mon was present, used Sabé's little known birth name when she said, "Tsabin would kill me if I let you get on camera looking like this. Come on. Let's get you looking presentable."

"I am presentable," Ahsoka said, but let Diya drag her away from Mon anyway.

"Not to address the galaxy. Luckily," Diya began with a click of her tongue, "Sabé helped us to prepare for this because she knew if it were up to you, you'd just wear your tank top and cargo pants."

"Prepare?" Ahsoka asked as Diya dragged her into her quarters.

Diya reached into the small compartment that they called a closet. She pulled out a fitted black, sleeveless, high-necked, double-breasted military jacket dress that would probably stop around just past her mid-thigh with a new utility belt to match. The symbol of the Fulcrum was embroidered on both front shoulders in silver thread.

"Sabé had it made. I helped her with the design. We know you never wore traditional Jedi robes because you hated how heavy and uncomfortable they were and the way they restricted your movement. So we figured you also wouldn't like the robes Mon or Bail wear. And we figured you'd want to still look like a general. And if a fight breaks out, you can still move. Oh yeah!" Diya reached into the compartment again and pulled out a headdress to go with it.

"I see you put a lot of thought into this," Ahsoka said as she picked at the sleeve. "Thank you."

"Well… you know," Diya said with a shrug, looking down at her feet. "You've done a lot for everyone. The Rebellion, that is. We wanted to take care of something for you. We meaning Cal, Merrin, and some others." Diya handed the outfit and the headdress to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka stopped Diya before she left.

"Hey, how did you know about the Jedi robes thing?"

Diya rolled her eyes. "Tall, dark, and mean told me and Sabé when we asked him about your taste in style. We hadn't expected much, but he shocked us."

"Yeah. Sometimes he does that."

"I'll be waiting in the conference room with everyone else."

The other togruta left the room.

Ahsoka absently cleaned herself up and put on the new outfit, unnerved by how much faith the Rebellion seemed to have in her when she still wasn't even sure what to say. A lot of days, she felt fourteen again, out of her depth and pretending she knew how to be a Jedi. She put on the utility belt and attached her lightsabers last before leaving.

When she got to the conference room and sat in her seat, she noticed Mon had placed a datapad in front of her with a speech. The one they'd worked on with Bail a few months ago when they weren't even sure they would succeed against Jabba and the Empire. They were pretty words. They would definitely notify the galaxy of their intentions, but would it inspire the galaxy? Ahsoka had been on the frontlines. She knew what the people thought of the Empire now, and she knew what they'd thought of the Republic in its waning years: a bunch of rich people with privilege playing politics and using the less fortunate as fuel for their wars for power.

What they wanted was to know that someone cared. Like Padmé had. Like Breha had. Like Ahsoka remembered Anakin used to before the Republic, the Jedi, the Sith, and his own insecurities had beaten and battered him.

_You can do this. I know you can. I trust you._

Ahsoka put the datapad face down right before she got the signal that the cameras were rolling and her image was being broadcast through the galaxy.

* * *

Vader had hardly been able to give the order to his fleet to head to Imperial Center after he arrived when his Admiral said, "Lord Vader. I believe you may want to see this."

"This had better be significant," Vader snapped with his arms crossed.

The Admiral said nothing and turned on the holoprojector. Ahsoka's image appeared, looking every part the future empress Vader intended her to be one day.

"_People of the galaxy, my name is Ahsoka Tano, former Jedi Knight of the Jedi Order. But most of you are probably more familiar with my more infamous name, Fulcrum. For the past nine years, I've been working silently from the shadows with the Rebel Alliance, fighting against and trying to mitigate the damage the Empire's war machine has wrought across the galaxy. I don't think I need to list the crimes of the Empire. From legalizing slavery, invading its own planets, disappearing anyone who shows a hint of dissent, multiple genocides - we've all felt the touch of the Empire's oppressive grip. But on Empire Day, I decided this is a fight that can no longer be had from the shadows. With the help of the Liberty Resistance to Eradicate Slavery, we dealt a crushing blow to the Empire by freeing Naboo and much of Hutt Space from its influence. _

"_But that was just a start. The Empire will not rest until it crushes all who oppose it, and while I wish I could say that I can fight it on my own, I can't. This isn't as simple as facing down an entire army with my lightsabers and fighting them singlehandedly. I can be the rallying cry, I can lead the soldiers. But I can't fight the Empire on my own. The Rebel Alliance needs your help. I need your help. Not to restore the Republic or destroy the Empire. But to remind those who use their power and abuse it that even though they forgot about us or tried to ignore us, we're still here. That we will hold them accountable._

"_I know this isn't the first time someone powerful has pleaded for your help and support only to turn against you. I, too, have been betrayed by governments and people more powerful than me. And I know many of you will perceive me as just another warmonger trying to upset the peace and consolidate power for myself. But there's no peace for me to upset. This is only a continuation of Emperor Palpatine's war. He started it during the Republic and carried it with him to his empire. Regardless of whether you decide to help me, I'm going to give him an opponent. The galaxy belongs to us, and so does this government to do what we will with it. And since Emperor Palpatine has proven that he cannot be trusted with it, we're left with no choice but to take it back. And I will not rest until the galaxy is out of Palpatine's control."_

She smirked then, eyes twinkling with the promise of mischief and vengeance.

"_By the way, Emperor Palpatine, I know it was you that ordered the invasion of Alderaan. I know that you ordered the capture of me and my children at any cost. I know you ordered the murder of Alderaan's queen and my friend, Breha Organa, for protecting and hiding us from you. And that's only the latest of your crimes against me. We have a score to settle. I'll come to you to discuss it."_

The broadcast cut out, and a hush fell over those who had gathered around to listen.

"Our orders, Lord Vader?" the Admiral asked urgently.

"Same as before. Set course for Imperial Center."

The crowd dispersed, rushing to do their parts. Vader pulled up the recording of the broadcast, pausing it on Ahsoka's image.

"I knew you had it in you."

He was only a little surprised when he felt the gentle warmth of her gratitude across their bond.

* * *

**AN: **1) If you got Clone Wars vibes from the end of Ahsoka and Vader's interactions, you're supposed to. Some of Anakin at his best was when he had to encourage Ahsoka when she was feeling down on herself.

2) Ahsoka doesn't know, but Vader started referring to her as the twin's mother back in chapter 54 when he went to Padmé's memorial for the first time. I have been meticulous about him always referring to Ahsoka by name when he speaks to the twins or anyone before that point. Even in Leia's little flashback with Vader which happened at some point before that chapter, he never references her as the twins' mother. Now, he's at a point where (like he told Winter when she said they didn't miss Padmé the way she missed Breha) he can't really imagine a world where Ahsoka's not their mother either. I went back and read some earlier chapters of this fic just to see where it started as I write the end and... I can see why some of you had no idea how I was going to make this a romantic relationship. Every line was an insult or hateful jab. Our heroine and anti-hero have come a very long way.

3) I didn't see the need for Luke and Leia to have this big reaction to the fact that their parents are dating. Literally nothing changes for them by that happening, which is why they both just shrug it off.

Anywho, sorry it was late, but my beta/proofreader was busy and couldn't get to it until late and then I had class. I hope you enjoyed! Review, please. I appreciate and get a kick out your insights.


	68. Sidious' Interlude

**Chapter Sixty-Eight: Sidious' Interlude**

He should have had Ahsoka Tano killed back when she'd been in his grasp.

Before him was the image of the former Jedi from the broadcast that even his best communications officers had been unable to stop. They had been able to trace the broadcast. But if Tano had been clever enough to hide in the shadows and build a rebellion, she'd been clever enough to know a broadcast of that magnitude could be traced. She would be gone by the time he could send anyone to get his hands on her. He sent someone to the location anyway.

The large doors to his throne room, formerly the Jedi's own High Council chambers, opened. Even now, nine years since the demise of the Jedi, he could sense the echoes of pain, fear, and suffering as his millennia-old enemies were cut down by his command with the help of one they'd called their own, their graveyard being the new foundation and beginning of his Sith Empire.

Lord Vader made his way into the room, faltering ever slightly at the image of Tano lit up off to the side. He recovered quickly enough and kneeled before Sidious' throne. Sidious decided not to acknowledge him immediately, ever conscious of the rising tension in his apprentice at the site of his own former apprentice from when he was a Jedi. Ever conscious of his apprentice trying and failing to control the turbulent mix of dark emotions growing within him.

Finally, Sidious said, "Rise, Lord Vader."

Vader rose to his feet, his gaze immediately going to the holo of the togruta woman beside him.

"The apprentice lives," Vader finally said with all the fury Sidious expected of him.

"So it seems," Sidious replied. "At the head of a Rebellion and with an army to add insult to injury."

"The Alderaan Royal family was involved," Vader stated. "At least, that is what she alluded to in her declaration of war."

"Yes," Sidious replied, tapping his fingers on the arm of his throne.

Anger burned in him at the audacity of the girl's words—the promise of not just war but to bring it right to the seat of his power.

Sidious had once appraised Tano as a potential threat to gaining Skywalker as his apprentice when Skywalker had first been assigned to teach her. Ultimately he'd determined that Skywalker's attachment to the brat would hold little sway over his future apprentice coming to the dark side. He'd refocused his efforts on continuing to encourage seeds of distrust and miscommunication between the boy and those he was loyal to—the Order, Obi-wan Kenobi, and his dear wife. He'd given the girl no more thought or concern.

The girl had even been an unexpected boon to Sidious when, without his interference or manipulation, her fellow Jedi framed her for the crime of bombing the Jedi Temple. All he'd had to do was watch the Jedi Order and the Senate flounder as they made hasty decisions resulting from the fear produced out the chaos of the war. A wrongful conviction and an execution, especially if Skywalker had been unable to stop it, would have done more to sow the seeds of distrust between the Order and Skywalker than Sidious could have ever manufactured. But even the near-miss of such a tragedy had done enough. Then, as a result of Skywalker's hastiness and rage, he'd caused the Council to separate him from the girl, something he'd lamented over to Sidious many times. It was both tragically pathetic and fortunate how the Council practically pushed the boy into his grasp by unwittingly making him feel so isolated.

By the time Sidious told the boy the Jedi had to be eradicated, he hadn't even had to do much convincing. Eliminating the Jedi was a personal vendetta that just so happened to be the apparent key to gaining strength in the dark side to save his wife from her inevitable death. He'd asked of the boy nothing that he hadn't already wanted to do over the years. And if that had not cemented his hold on the boy, if he had been mildly concerned that Skywalker's former apprentice had escaped, that she had any lingering influence over him, she'd rectified the problem herself with the near-fatal strike she'd given him.

There had been no need to put any energy into looking for her. She alone had been no threat.

Or so Sidious had thought.

One thing immediately clear to Sidious when first saw her broadcast was that she had shunned the Jedi teaching. Teaching that had made her teachers so weak but given them influence and prestige in the Republic for its thousand years of peace. Instead, likely unwittingly, she'd embraced the countenance and demeanor of the Jedi of old. Before they'd spurned attachments and eschewed emotion. Before they'd given up the way that made them formidable opponents to entire Sith armies. Not concerned about philosophical tenants that were impractical to the peacekeeping the Jedi proclaimed to believe. Yet, she still shunned the Sith philosophy.

That made her dangerous. More dangerous than he'd predicted she would ever become. An actual threat to his Empire. A threat he'd known _nothing _about.

"She said another intriguing thing," Vader said. "She spoke about her children."

Yes. That. At least one thing had come out of this that Sidious could use to his advantage.

"See for yourself," Sidious said, tapping a button on his throne.

The picture shifted to a collage of images. Some with Tano and others without. But all of them with a blonde-haired boy and brown-haired girl. Pictures were the only thing he had about them. Like their supposed mother, he'd underestimated them. Or perhaps, he'd overestimated Tarkin's ability to take their threat seriously.

Vader walked closer to the holos. Sidious carefully observed his apprentice's reaction. Confusion, dawning realization, rage, hate most prominently. But there was a blip of something else there. Affection. Fondness. Warmth. Perhaps even love. Vader was wise enough to bury it beneath his dark emotions but not quickly enough. They both knew it.

How interesting…

"That's… It's impossible. The child… She died before…"

"It seems," Sidious interrupted, for once allowing Vader's moment of weakness concerning his vile affection for his dead wife, "that once again, the Jedi have deceived us."

Sidious' ire rose again at the thought that this Jedi, who'd been barely more than a girl pretending to be an adult, managed to slip past him for so long. That she'd managed to hide any record of Amidala's children before whisking them away. He'd checked for any deception with Amidala's death himself. Made sure that his own people intercepted the reports. Death from complications due to strangulation and heart failure that he'd publicly blamed on the Jedi, the fetus, a girl the report had shown, dead with Amidala. No evidence or record of a birth or even a falsified death. Certainly, no record that Amidala had been pregnant with more than one child. But the Naboo had proven in the last few days that they too could play the game of deception. It seemed his people were not as under his foot as he'd thought. They would be dealt with.

But the mystery of the children at hand might best be solved by interrogating Vader.

"The Jedi. Ah—_Tano. _She was the one who stole Amidala from Mustafar after she injured me."

"Then, perhaps, you did not kill Amidala as we once were led to believe. Perhaps when Amidala gave birth, Tano killed their mother and stole the children away to raise as Jedi. While publicly, she has renounced her place with the Jedi, perhaps, privately, she still holds loyalty to them and intends to raise the children to continue her unjust crusade against us when she fails," Sidious offered.

"No. She couldn't have. _Tano _is a Jedi. They're too weak and foolish to do something so devious for their own whims. _She_ wouldn't have."

Sidious folded his hands in front of him. How interesting. The faith that his apprentice still seemed to have in his former student.

"She is the reason for your dependency on your suit, Lord Vader. You would not have thought her capable of that either," he pointed out.

Something rose up in Vader at that statement before he pulled it back and carefully covered it with his rage and hate.

"Is there something you wish to disclose to me, Lord Vader?" He clawed at their bond, making cracks and tears in Vader's shields, seeking the reason for the man's reluctance to believe the Jedi could have been so devious. He got no images, but a fleeting feeling of passion. Sidious narrowed his eyes. "Something you wish to disclose to me about Skywalker's relationship with Tano?"

Vader went through a few cycles on his respirator before saying, "Skywalker and Tano grew… intimately _close_ toward the end of the Clone War."

"Close?" Sidious asked.

"There was no twin," Vader admitted. "We knew that much. We both checked before… the other child. The boy…"

So it seemed Amidala had not been the only loud and outspoken hindrance of a woman his apprentice had become entangled with and garnered a weakness for. Frankly, Sidious wasn't surprised. For all that Vader had been the ideal apprentice, his most glaring weakness had always been his heart. Of course, there had been another woman. Of course, that turned out to be his former apprentice. And of course, he'd fathered a second child with her.

Sidious tutted. "You disappoint me, Lord Vader. Would you have informed me of such a possibility if I had not asked?"

"I did not know. She didn't tell me before… I could not have—"

Sidious scowled in disgust, not in the mood for his apprentice's excuses and pathetic weakness. He raised his hand, summoning lightning and directing it at his apprentice. Vader braced himself to take the lightning, dropping to one knee in the middle of the attack. Sidious stopped the lightning just before he knew it would begin to compromise the life support suit.

"While you disappoint me for not informing me of this possibility, your folly can prove advantageous to us," he informed. "Both your children, especially the boy, can prove an asset to our empire and a weapon to cripple Tano and the Rebellion with it."

Sidious fed off Vader's apprehension, as well his apprentice should be. Always aware of how precarious his place was at his side should he step out of line too far or fail one too many times.

"What is thy bidding?" Vader asked.

"My intention was to make you the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet and Army. With your superior power and insight, having trained Tano yourself, I believed you would be the best choice in bringing a swift end to the Rebellion and Tano's forces." Sidious paused. "Is that still true? Can I trust you to bring a swift end to Tano's movement and have the children brought to me? Or do I need to entrust someone else with the task?"

"No, my master," Vader answered immediately.

Sidious resisted the urge to smile. Always so eager to please, to prove his worth, to maintain his position despite the intense hate he knew Vader felt at being subjugated by him. Because he had no choice. No one else to turn to. At least, that had been true in the past. Sidious intended to make sure that was still true, a least long enough for him to get the children into his grasp.

"Or… need I remind you of Tano's betrayal."

Sidious didn't wait for Vader to respond. Instead, he invaded the man's mind with the dark side, pushing back against what little resistance Vader gave and dredged up memories of the Rebellion leader in the man, tainting them with the dark side when needed.

"Remember that it was she who rebuffed all your efforts to make her see the truth of the Jedi lies after you'd saved her life from their folly. It was she who sided with the Council and broke off your partnership. It was she who crippled you, whisked Amidala away, killed her, and stole both your children from you. And now she plans to wage a war against us and our Empire and use your children as weapons to do it. All this by taking advantage of your ill-advised affections for her."

Sidious finally withdrew the mental corruption from Vader's mind. He followed up with Force lightning until Vader's breathing became a distinctive wheeze, an indication that the respirator, while still functioning, was damaged.

"I ask again, Lord Vader; can I trust you with this task?"

In the half a dozen or so cycles that it took Vader to respond, Sidious sensed an inferno of the dark side roaring within his apprentice. A vow of revenge for everything that was taken from him. His wife. His health. His children. All at the hands of an ex-lover. Then—

"Yes, my master."

Sidious did smile this time.

"Good."

He'd get Vader to fight this war for him, get the man to bring his children to him, and then, once the Rebellion was crushed and Tano destroyed, he'd make Vader the villain of this war. Reinforce that Vader was the reason for the dissent and dissatisfaction within the Empire. Reinforce what the galaxy already thought of Vader. A terror. A terror that Sidious had once been able to control but who had gotten out of hand and wreaked havoc and chaos upon the Empire, committing grievous crimes. Ostensibly on Sidious' behalf, but truly unknowing to him. Well-intentioned for sure, Sidious would make sure to inform the galaxy at the war's end, but grievous. Then, with two new possible apprentices to mold, Sidious would eliminate Vader personally. And he'd groom and break his children into weapons without the weakness of their father.

Sensing hesitancy from Vader, but not particularly at the task that he'd been given, Sidious said, "I sense that something else concerns you, Lord Vader."

"I…" Vader trailed off. "I just wonder how it was that she'd managed to escape our notice for this long."

A question that Sidious too pondered. For sure, he'd underestimated the girl's power. But the dark side should have warned him of the rise of his new opponent. However, even when he'd sought the power of the dark side to get a glimpse of her plans, the chances of the inevitability of an encounter with her, the plot of the inevitable war, the dark side was silent. Silent not because it had nothing to give, but because it would not yield. Somehow, though Tano was an agent of the light, she did not shun the dark side of the Force. In return, it did not shun her. Sidious could not be sure of what that meant. He suspected Vader had something to do with it, but Sidious did not think that was what Vader was getting at.

"I do not know. But you seem to have an idea."

"I believe that we may yet have more unseen enemies in the Empire that wish to see our downfall than the Rebellion that we now see."

"Spies?" the Emperor asked.

"Not just spies. But supporters. In high positions and in close proximity to you backing her rebellion. I have listened to her broadcast multiple times and had my best agents analyze it. Not once did she ever state that her intention was to restore the Republic. I suspect that it was so she did not alienate those supporters."

For all the trouble that Lord Vader always gave him, Sidious rather Vader be giving him trouble while on his side than trouble while fighting against him. When his apprentice could think beyond his rage, his insights were keen and valuable.

"Of course, there would be," Sidious agreed. "I will initiate a task force to weed them out. I want all of your focus to be on obliterating this rebellion threat. They are responsible for all the strife, chaos, and instability of our Empire. Only then will we have peace."

"It will be done, my master."

Sidious waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, and Vader limped out of the throne room.

When the doors closed, Sidious turned the image on the hologram to the Jedi during her broadcast. Sidious would have to increase the number of spies he had around Vader. Sidious was indeed not the only one who saw Vader as a valuable weapon. If Tano had been smart enough to gain loyalties from imperials and not isolate them by remaining vague about her goals regarding the Empire, she no doubt would make an attempt to plead with Vader. And Vader, in his weakness, could potentially fall to her.

He really should have killed Ahsoka Tano when he had the chance.

**End of Part Seven**

* * *

1) I had one hell of a time with this chapter. Why? Because the interludes are unique in the sense that they give important perspectives that add context and sometimes a little mystique to Vader and Ahsoka's relationship. No one has all the facts about what exactly is going on or why it's going on, but they have their opinions. Opinions that the two involved don't really comment on (Vader) or sometimes encourage to mislead them (Ahsoka). Finding Palpatine's perspective was tricky. Then I realized that Palpatine's real issue was that he'd be pissed off at Ahsoka and only care about her relationship with Vader to the extent it might endanger his control over Vader.

2) Vader is clearly lying through his teeth in this chapter. Not outright lying. Palpatine would detect an outright lie. But he didn't lie when he told Ahsoka it's hard to hide his affection for her and here, Palpatine senses it. So he rolls with, letting Palpatine make assumptions about it.

3) A running theme in the Clone Wars series is that it seems people always underestimate Ahsoka's abilities in some way, form, or fashion until it's too late. Sidious is not immune to that. In fact, in OT, he lost because he underestimated Vader's love for his son among other things that I shall elaborate on in a later date.

Hope you enjoyed! Review, please!


	69. Part Eight: Chapter Sixty-Nine: May

**Part Eight  
****Chapter Sixty-Nine: May**

Ahsoka thought she knew war.

She'd fought on the front lines of one for three and a half years, having been in dozens of fights and battles before she was sixteen.

Still, it had been one thing for Ahsoka to participate in a war from the front lines, briefing the Council back on Coruscant about battles and any other findings. It was entirely different being in charge of the entire war campaign. Sitting in meetings with generals about strategy and how to protect the planets that had joined their cause. Sitting with High Command and Senators about how to persuade more systems to their side, particularly the neutral worlds that somehow managed to maintain their autonomy from the Empire at all. Directing generals and commanders to go on various types of missions. Being talked out of taking some missions herself because it was too dangerous and she was too important to lose, even temporarily by just losing contact.

Compared to this, Ahsoka almost wished for the days of the Clone Wars on the frontlines as a general. Better than that. A commander under her master. Vader had shielded her from many of the responsibilities that her military rank was supposed to come with. They'd had their issues out on the field and clashed with those who weren't on the front lines because of it, but at least they'd only had to worry about themselves and their troops. Not three campaigns in three different sectors happening simultaneously. Not approving the training for new recruits. Not meeting with generals to strategize. Not meeting with senators and local leaders about needs and aid and fears that the Empire would invade their planet because of their rebellion.

A knock on her office door interrupted her self-pity party.

"Come in."

"Are you done?" Rex asked, poking his head into the room.

Ahsoka sighed. "Almost."

"You said that two hours ago."

"Did I?"

"Yep," Rex said, handing Ahsoka a water bottle and a bottle of pain meds. "Diya told me before she left to make sure you take these for your headaches. Obi-wan said that you need to go get a physical. I agree with him."

"Oh yeah?" Ahsoka asked, standing from her desk and taking the offered items.

"I do. And so would the General," Rex said pointedly. "He told me to make sure you weren't working too hard, and that's exactly what you're doing. Have you even eaten today?"

The fact that Ahsoka couldn't remember probably answered that.

"No wonder everyone's worried about you taking care of yourself and Obi-wan thinks you should get checked out."

"I'll have you know I just recently got a checkup," Ahsoka replied.

Rex clearly didn't believe her.

"Honest," Ahsoka said, holding up her hands.

She understood why Rex had reason to doubt. More often than not, she brushed off any trips to the medics after a mission, citing that she only needed a quick rest and she'd be fine. But a checkup had been one of the first things she'd done upon their relocation to their new base. Mostly to make sure her contraceptive implant was in working order and to update it. She may have a reckless streak, but not with this. Though she'd never begrudge the circumstances that forced her into becoming a mother, the last thing she wanted or needed was to end up pregnant. Besides, childbirth did not look fun when she'd seen Padmé, a human, go through it. Togruta, she'd heard, went through a similar process. But it was much quicker and a lot more painful. Ahsoka would pass.

Rex didn't need to know all that, though. He'd just have to trust her about it.

"Where are the twins?" Ahsoka asked as she swallowed down one of the headache meds.

"They were sitting in the mess hall, having dinner with someone when I passed on the way to get you."

"Thanks, Rex. You don't have to come with me. I know you have better stuff to do."

"The General employs me to look after you first. So that means I have nothing better. And I don't trust for a second that you won't go back to your office if I leave you before Luke and Leia see you."

"I'm not a workaholic."

"You _weren't _a workaholic," Rex corrected.

"Don't worry. Anything else I have to do can wait until tomorrow, or someone else can do it."

When they entered the mess, Ahsoka spotted Luke and Leia sitting with Winter and two others after a passing glance. No telling what rebel they'd found to talk to today. Between Luke's disarming grin and Leia's way with words, the two had become quite well known and liked around the base in the months since they'd moved there. And that had been long before word had gotten around that the two children belonged to their Rebellion leader. Winter was much shyer and quieter, even more so than Ahsoka had known her to be over the years. Probably a combination of losing her mother and not knowing where her father was. Luke and Leia were happy to take her with them wherever they went.

She started to go to the back of the line to get food, only for Rex to redirect her to the front where the servers took one look at her, made her a tray ahead of everyone else, and sent her on her way. Perks of leading a rebellion, she supposed.

Once Rex seemed sure she wasn't going to escape to her office, he left her be, and Ahsoka made her way to sit with Luke and Leia.

"I see you've made more friends," Ahsoka said, coming up behind them.

Not startled and probably sensing her approach long ahead of time, Luke turned to Ahsoka and said, "Mom! Look who we found!"

Ahsoka looked up from them and then to their guest across the table. If she'd had less self-control, she might have made an exclamation of surprise. As it was, when she recognized the distinctive nose ring, the dark brown skin, the dark bushy hair pulled into a neat ponytail, Ahsoka took a moment to mentally collect herself before she said, "May."

The woman smiled and said, "Hey, sweetie."

So much had changed since Ahsoka's last encounter with May. Yet here she was, calling her by the old endearment like nothing had changed. Somehow, that just made Ahsoka feel self-conscious. Calling her that like Ahsoka hadn't left in the middle of the night with Darth Vader and broken her heart.

Luke, Leia, and Winter getting up from the table distracted her.

"Where are you going?" Ahsoka asked.

"Flight simulator. The instructor said she'd meet us there to teach us after dinner when she was done training pilots for the day," Luke said as they hastily cleared their trays.

Before Ahsoka could say anything, all three children gave quick good-byes, rushed to return their trays and dishes, and ran out the mess hall to their next adventure. And to think Ahsoka had been worried about how they'd adjust. Luke and Leia had taken to their newfound freedom from structured tutoring and handmaidens dressing them to t-shirts, cargo pants, vests, and whatever else they could run around in like a tooka to tookanip.

She turned back to where May was sitting, suddenly not knowing what to do while still carrying her dinner tray.

"You can sit down. I'm not going to shoot you. You probably would, though," May said, taking Ahsoka back to the first time she'd met her.

It did nothing to comfort Ahsoka, but she sat across from the woman anyway.

"It's…" Ahsoka trailed off and then sighed. "It's been a long time."

"Hasn't it?" May asked, raising a brow. "You skip town with your ex in the middle of the night, I don't hear from you for over seven years, and then I find out with the rest of the galaxy that you're alive and well and leading the rebellion."

Ahsoka averted her gaze. "When you put it like that, you make me sound like a real asshole."

"I have to say, you don't do anything in half measures, Ahsoka."

"I'm sorry," Ahsoka said, looking back up at her. If she was going to apologize, she was going to give May the dignity of looking her in the eye.

May's gaze softened into a smile as she reached over and put a hand over Ahsoka's left one.

"I'm glad to see you. I was worried about you when you left. Especially since…" she trailed off. "But you got away from him again. And you're here. Fighting against him and the Emperor and the Empire. That's what matters."

Ahsoka could leave it at that. She should leave it at that. Let May assume she'd been found by her abusive ex-partner, whisked away to who knew where, and escaped later to form this rebellion. Ahsoka didn't even have to fill anything in or say anything to make the woman believe it.

But this was May. The first person she'd taken the risk to trust when everyone else that had been left alive in the terrible aftermath of the Empire's rise had abandoned or betrayed her. And after all this time, the woman had kept the secret of who Ahsoka's partner was to herself. Not that anyone would probably believe her.

Still.

"Actually, it's a lot more complicated than that," Ahsoka admitted.

"Complicated?"

"Not here. Come to my quarters with me," Ahsoka suggested. She grimaced. "I'm not propositioning you. It's just the securest place to talk."

"Thanks for the assurance. My wife will be glad that our fearless leader isn't trying to put the moves on me. That would certainly make things awkward."

They both stood, Ahsoka taking her tray with her.

"You're married?"

"Four years now. Sorry to disappoint you," May said with a coy wink.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "Trust me. I'm far from disappointed." Ahsoka smiled as they left the hall and headed to her quarters. "Quite a relief, really. Now my partner has nothing to be jealous about."

May shrugged. "Hey. My wife and I have tossed around the idea of a third. I wouldn't rule it out yet. Maybe even a fourth so your partner won't feel left out."

"He's not the sharing type."

"Pity."

They both got a good chuckle out of that and continued to Ahsoka's quarters in silence.

Ahsoka's quarters reminded her of the small apartments granted to Jedi Knight except the bedroom and the living space was larger. But it was a lot more than most people got on the base. Most shared a bunk with someone else.

Ahsoka set her tray on the small table to pop in the microwave and eat later. Then she went to the couch. May joined her.

"How did you find Luke and Leia anyway?" Ahsoka asked.

"They found me. The flight instructor Luke was talking about? She's my wife. Nadia. I went there to find her in between classes, and there was Luke, Leia, and Winter—that's her name, right?" At Ahsoka's nod, May continued. "Anyway, they've gotten so big. I didn't recognize them. But they recognized me. Said they felt like they knew me and when Nadia introduced me to them and they heard my name, they remembered. They were so young when you left. I was surprised."

They more than likely remembered her in the Force, a memory that was older and much more reliable than standard memory. But May wouldn't understand that.

"Your wife is one of my pilot instructors?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yes. The rebellion is actually how we met."

"How did you get involved with the rebellion?"

"Nadia was running a mission in the area and had to refuel, and I figured out she was a rebel pretty quickly. She thought I'd probably be a valuable asset to the rebellion with my observational and analytical skills and put me in touch with your intelligence and communications branch."

"Diya would have still been running that back then," Ahsoka cut in.

"Togruta woman who looks like you? If we hadn't dated and I didn't know your features so well, I would have thought she was you. Sisters?"

Ahsoka shrugged. "Related. We just call each other cousins."

"Anyway, with so many people passing through Sheba, I was able to funnel quite a bit of information to the Rebellion. Sometimes, they'd use me to help analyze and give a big picture of information they collected, a skill I learned from teaching history. The Emperor has a very poetic and historical sense of things. I've even been able to predict initiatives and movements based on some of the information they give me to piece together."

"I'm sure it's been invaluable to our efforts. Thank you," Ahsoka said. She sighed, rolling her shoulders to get them to relax. This wasn't some dignitary. She didn't have to act like she was functioning in her role as the Fulcrum right now. "Good thing you didn't listen when I said stay out of it, huh?"

"If any of it helped, then definitely. So what about you, sweetie? Going to fill me in about what happened to you after you left me to go with Darth Vader? Of all the people in the galaxy, I didn't think he was your ex."

So many things for Ahsoka to correct in that.

"There are a lot of things I wasn't totally honest with you about, May. My partner is one of them. Yes, he's Darth Vader now. And I knew him long before he became Darth Vader, but he was just my fighting partner and a really good friend. Not my romantic partner. Not then," Ahsoka began.

"But Luke and Leia…"

"They're his biological children. Not mine. We did get into an altercation when the Empire rose, and I did almost kill him, but it was their birth mother he attacked when she was pregnant. Not me," Ahsoka clarified. "I pretended to be the twins' birth mother to protect me and to protect them."

May made a noise of amusement. "Well, that explains how you managed to snapback only three weeks after supposedly giving birth to twins, I suppose. But he still captured you and the twins. How—?"

"He didn't capture me. I went with him willingly."

"Maybe. But when Darth Vader comes knocking at your door, what other choice do you have?"

"No. I mean..." Ahsoka sighed. She always knew she had a complicated relationship with Vader, but having to explain it always seemed to highlight just how complicated it was. "I mean, when I said I was going to do something about the Empire, I meant I was going to do it with him."

"And how'd that work out?"

"Pretty good, all things considered. He's helped me build this rebellion. Without him, I don't think I would have ever gotten this far."

May whistled. "Wow. Darth Vader. A kriffing double agent for the Rebellion."

"Not how he sees it. He sees it more of us having a common enemy in the Emperor. Better we work together to dismantle his power and then figure out our differences afterward."

May reminded Ahsoka of Sabé in the way that she'd always been more challenging to read than most non-Force-sensitive humans. May tended to hide her reactions behind a calm pretense of witty, probing remarks and observations.

"You're taking this all in stride," Ahsoka commented.

"Ahsoka," May began wryly, "the last time I saw you, you told me you were a Jedi and then walked off into the night with Darth kriffing Vader. Almost nothing you tell me can truly surprise me. Besides, you've gotten the rebellion this far. Further than I thought would be possible in less than ten years. Heck, in less than twenty or thirty, for that matter. Who am I to question it?"

Breha had questioned it, almost every time they brought it up, but still always allowed and wanted Ahsoka to come to her about it regardless. Always ready to give her advice and listen when she could. Even going so far as to tease her about her relationship with Vader.

"But, there is one thing…"

Of course.

"You said he wasn't your romantic partner then. Are you…?"

"Yeah…" Ahsoka said slowly. "It's very complicated on the best of days, and I know it's hard to believe the Darth Vader you know is capable of something like that, but yeah. In recent years anyway."

"You don't have to defend your choices to me, Ahsoka. I understand. To everyone else, he's a homicidal psychopath, but you've had the chance to see behind that. I still have my own opinions about the guy, but we have a saying in my culture. Even the devil loves and cares for his wife and children."

"There's a saying like that on Shili. The Akul is our enemy and hunts us, but even it will protect and care for its pride. Even they love their cubs."

May nodded. "He's made you happy."

"How can you tell?"

May gave a sad smile and placed a hand on Ahsoka's lek, near her shoulder.

"You were so broken when we first met—more than that. You were shattered. I remember I'd walk into your room to check on you those first days. You'd have the twins lying on the bed in front of you, and you would just stare at them like you were glad to have them but still wanted to burst into tears. I thought it was just you being relieved to be out of a bad situation that you were downplaying and that you were afraid he'd find you. But the more I got to know you, the more I realized he'd been really good to you for a long time, and you were struggling to reconcile your last encounter with him to the years of good memories you had of him." May shook her head. "But you were a fierce fighter. You didn't let it keep you down even though I could tell it depressed you. It's one of the reasons I was so in love with you back then. I always knew though… I always had a feeling that you'd leave to go find him one day. To at least try to help him. I just didn't know when."

Ahsoka figured that was probably an accurate summation of her headspace back then. If Vader hadn't found her, she had planned to link up with the Rebellion and find a way to contact him. She'd planned on pleading with him just as she had when he walked through her front door in the middle of the night all those years ago. She just didn't know it had been so obvious to May. No wonder the woman had believed her story so easily.

"If you knew all that, if you knew one day I was going to leave, why did you still want to date me?"

May shrugged and removed her hand from Ahsoka. "Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. I liked you, and it was fun. You made me happy. It was worth it even though it was brief. Love makes you do things that are beyond reason. You know that."

"Yeah, but… I didn't love him back then. Not like that."

"Maybe you loved him differently, but you loved him. He couldn't have broken your heart otherwise. You wouldn't have taken his children in without question."

Ahsoka didn't know if that was true. She hadn't put much thought into it back then. She'd been a Jedi trying to live by its code. While love and attachment were arguably two different ideas, there was a very thin line between them, and it was easier to deny both. But maybe she'd just been kidding herself. If she hadn't had an attachment to Vader back then, she wouldn't have been so lost when she was forced to flee from him. If she'd actually been trying to live by the code, she would have shrugged it off and moved on. She wouldn't have been so terrified that she might have killed him. She wouldn't have been so paralyzed at the thought of never seeing him again. She would have left the Jedi Order right after her trial instead of letting him talk her into staying.

Ahsoka wondered if what the Jedi asked of those who had been part of its ranks was just as unnatural as the dark side abilities they'd been taught to fear.

"There are going to be a lot of people with a lot to say about your relationship with him when all this is over," May warned. "But I can tell you're happier with him than you are without him."

Ahsoka laughed. "We always were better as a team."

"I don't doubt it."

Ahsoka yawned.

"Sorry," she said, covering her mouth.

"No need. Keeping this thing running has to be exhausting. You get some rest, sweetie. I'll see you around."

May stood from the couch, but Ahsoka grabbed her hand to keep her from leaving.

"What?" May asked.

"May. How would you like to be a part of Operation Mortis?"

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**AN: **I always intended for May to come back to the story. I just was never sure how it was going to happen until it happened in this chapter.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, please. Curious to see what your insights will be because I had none.


	70. Mortis

**AN: **Once again, this is only a partial chapter. This site does not allow explicit sex, thus if you want to see the full chapter as it was intended and envisioned, head on over to archive of our own. I have the same username over there. Just type "LadyDae How to Take an Empire ao3" into google, and it'll pop right up. If you don't want to see the explicit parts, proceed ahead.

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**Chapter Seventy: ****Mortis**

Most times, when Vader looked at Ahsoka, it was easy to forget that once upon a time, she'd been a jittery little teenager and eager to prove herself, hiding behind a bravado of confidence that wasn't always false but definitely sometimes exaggerated. Now was not one of those times as he watched her pace the conference room back and forth, a habit he didn't remember her having.

"You're nervous," he stated gently. Or at least, he tried to state gently. Everything came out loud and booming through the respirator. Something he hadn't been very self-aware of until lately. And only around Ahsoka, though, she didn't seem bothered by it.

"You're not." She paused. "At least, not about this meeting."

This meeting being the assembly of their most trusted agents to form their own contingency. Vader had seen the future. He knew they would win. He'd even foreseen that they might even win sooner than they'd both thought possible. But if there were one thing he'd give credit to Jedi philosophy for, it was that the future was always in motion. Nothing was set in stone. Something that had taken him much too long to learn. And at any given time, the balance could tip against them. If Sidious was willing to fight them from the grave if necessary, then so would they.

"No. I'm not," Vader replied.

She didn't need to know the precarious position he was in dealing with Sidious right now. Even though Sidious only knew a partial truth concerning Ahsoka and had fallen for the subtle suggestion about what had been their true relationship in the past, Vader had to tread even more carefully around the spies he knew watched him. It had taken five months, a month and a half longer into their war than he'd wanted, to arrange this clandestine meeting without alerting the Emperor's spies. To get Sabé to arrange the rumors of quiet rebellion activity on Vendaxa so he could "investigate." Even now, there was a tight window of opportunity. They only had a few hours, at best, to gather everyone, brief them, and disperse.

"You have nothing to be nervous about," Vader said after watching Ahsoka pace the room once more. "I'm the one that has to explain to my all subordinates how I'm planning a coup against the Emperor with our supposed enemy. The people you invited have some inkling of your involvement with me."

"Perhaps. But I'm also asking them to put their biases aside to not just work with some of the vilest people of the Empire, but some of whom they've personally gotten violently entangled with. You, chief of them all," Ahsoka said bluntly.

Vader had no argument with that. Nor was he anymore offended by the reminder of his sins now as he would have been three or four months ago. He hadn't expected her to pull any punches just because she'd allowed him into her bed. That was part of the entertainment value anyway.

Ahsoka's comm beeped.

"My people are here," Ahsoka informed. "I'll go get them while you brief yours."

She left the room while Vader comm'd Sabé to bring his people in. She filed into the room with five people trailing behind her: His clone trooper commander, Dare; His lieutenant, Piett; General Veers, who didn't work directly in Vader's fleet but whom he and Sabé had been watching and sometimes working with for some time and taken note of his politics.

Their confusion was apparent to him in the Force. Vader wasted no time disabusing them of it.

"I have called you here today because you have all been identified as being advantageous to me and my plans to take this empire out of the dregs of decadence caused by none other than our illustrious Emperor."

It said a lot about how much they'd observed and figured out on their own that neither his clone commander nor his lieutenant seemed very surprised by that. Of course, Commander Dare had met Ahsoka. Lieutenant Piett was observant but was competent enough to know when to keep his mouth shut. Vader sensed General Veers was very surprised but knew better than to make any judgments without more facts about the matter.

"My Lord?" Veers asked in a tone that begged clarification. "A coup?"

"Yes. And through careful observation and sifting, you are all part of a group of people we have identified as vital to be put in key positions to ensure the smooth transition of power once Palpatine is deposed. Part of a much larger group of people that are least likely to put up a challenge to the birth of the Empire anew. But even still, that's not why I have gathered you three here today. I have gathered you three here for something far more sensitive," Vader said.

"And what's that, Lord Vader?"

Vader didn't answer.

The doors to the room opened and in walked Ahsoka followed by Diya, Rex, Cal Kestis, a woman with dark skin and tight curly brown hair in a high ponytail, and Vader's surprise, Queen Améla herself, sans her costume.

Améla, Pooja, looked at Vader and nodded his head, "An honor to see you again, Lord Vader."

"Same," Vader replied. "If not surprising."

"You didn't think I was going to take your word for it when you said you were working with General Tano. I reached out to her to confirm the details and offered Naboo's services. Whether inadvertently or not, we helped Palpatine rise tomorrow. He is our sin. We will do our part to see him permanently deposed of," Pooja declared.

Though she didn't look much like her aunt, she certainly had her fire.

"You're that kid," Commander Dare said, pointing to Cal. "You're the one that was going around infiltrating Imperial strongholds to bring back the Jedi Order. We spend months trying to track you down."

Cal gave an awkward grin, a hand going to scratch the back of his head as he said, "Did we run into each other?"

"No." Dare smirked. "Luckily for you."

"And I'm Diya, also known as the Imposter for impersonating Ahsoka Tano and successfully throwing off the Empire from the fact that she was still alive," Diya said. She then nodded to General Veers. "Good to see you again, General, particularly without your blaster pointed my way."

"Likewise," Veers said in a noncommittal tone.

"We'll have to discuss how you come up with your command strategies. You almost got me last time." She turned to Ahsoka and Vader, "But I'm sure you two didn't bring us all the way out here for us to socialize."

"In a way," Ahsoka said, taking Diya's insolence in stride as she always had, "we did."

The table fell into silence.

"Make no mistake when I say that we would not have started a crusade against the Emperor that we did not know we could win," Vader said. "But things happen—things out of our control. Even the emperor, with all his great power, knows that. Thus he has facilitated a way to continue his rule from beyond the grave by giving one final order for the complete destabilization of the Empire and the galaxy. Something that would make it almost impossible for there to be a stable government for centuries, at least."

"Contingency. Right?" Cal asked.

Of course, he would know. He'd been exploring the outskirts of the galaxy and the Unknown Regions in search of clues about the plan with Obi-wan.

"Yes," Vader replied gravely.

"My Lord," Piett began, "The Emperor would destroy and destabilize all the work we've put into the Empire?"

"Lieutenant, to the Emperor, all of us, myself included, are little more than pawns in his grand scheme for complete dominance. He has groomed and encouraged each and every one of us in some capacity to participate in petty infighting amongst one another for proximity to him. He wants to keep us separate. It is how he controls us."

"But that's why we've decided to bring you together. We can't beat the Emperor at his own game. But we can beat him at our own," Ahsoka said, taking over. "The Emperor controls all those under him by keeping them separate. By making people not know who to trust. We're bringing you together so that in the event of either of our demise in this war, you all know what the next steps are. You've each now have access to an encrypted file that outlines the part you'll play in Operation Mortis. Done in isolation, the actions you all are to take will be useless. Done together, and even without my or Vader's guidance, you have the pieces to combat Palpatine's Contingency and bring the Empire and the Rebellion together to keep the government stable until you can figure out what Palpatine's left that can be salvaged to for a new era."

"Ambitious," Pooja commented.

"But necessary."

"I'm assuming you've chosen us because of some expertise or position we have that we can exploit to bring your contingency into fruition," the dark-skinned human said. Vader vaguely remembered her from somewhere. But he wasn't sure where. "What if that advantage changes? What if we're not in the right position?"

"Sabé has been set with the task to monitor you all and update the plan as necessary. You need not worry if the decision you make will affect it. As far as anyone knows, you," Vader looked at Veers, Commander Dare, and Lieutenant Piett, "are loyal servants of Palpatine's Empire. And you all," he turned to Ahsoka's cohort, "are rebels loyal to the cause of taking Palpatine down. Continue to do whatever you must in service of keeping that façade."

"And what's to stop them," Rex asked, nodding over to the Imperials opposite them, "from blabbering off to the Emperor."

Veers answered before Vader had to. "By virtue of the fact that we've been approached for this operation, the Emperor won't be able to trust our loyalty. We have everything to lose by trying to report it."

"I am glad you're intelligent enough to know that. Not that you wouldn't be dead before you could try. Like I said, you are being observed," Vader assured. Then he noted the time and said, "While I have ensured no one would be able to notice our gathering unless we dallied for more than a few hours, I would like to not linger here any longer than necessary. You have your orders. You are free to leave and go back to your regular assignments."

Sabé, Veers, Dare, and Piett knew a dismissal from Vader when they saw one and promptly began to leave. Ahsoka's people, however, lingered, looking at her for confirmation.

"Go ahead. You know who your allies will be. You know about Operation Mortis. There's nothing else you need to know for now," Ahsoka said.

They all nodded. Diya and Cal led the way to leave the room, already engaged in a whispered conversation. Vader hoped to the Force that they both had enough sense not to tell Merrin and their new friend, Han Solo, about this. He already knew they'd drag the two in to be involved if the time ever came. But until then, he hoped they knew how to use discretion. Pooja, escorted by Rex, followed them out. The dark-skinned woman gave Ahsoka a vaguely concerned look.

It took Ahsoka saying, "Don't worry May. It's fine. I'll see you back at base," for the woman to nod her head and leave.

"What was that?" Vader asked when the woman, May, left.

"May."

"I didn't ask you who. I asked you what. Even if I did, that answers nothing."

"She just wanted to make sure for herself that I was safe with you."

"Safe?"

"You can't really blame her. The last time she saw us together, I was shaking and halfway scared to death, and she was under the assumption that you were my abusive ex forcing me back to you," Ahsoka replied.

That was the clue Vader need to figure out why she'd been so familiar to him.

"That was your ex-girlfriend. You invited your ex-girlfriend into this?"

"Don't get all jealous on me. She's happily married. And she kept my connection to you secret all these years, even though she misunderstood our relationship."

Speaking of that…

"Right. Because she apparently thought I was your abusive ex," Vader stated wryly. "What in the galaxy have you been telling people about me?"

"Nothing that you don't perpetuate anyway."

Vader huffed, though it came out as more of a growl through the respirator. He couldn't argue with that even if he didn't like it. It was a necessity. Now more than ever given what the Emperor thought he knew about the nature of his and Ahsoka's relationship before the Clone War's end.

Ahsoka suddenly frowned, her eyes narrowing slightly as she asked, "What does the Emperor think he knows about you and me?"

It took a few seconds for Vader to realize that she'd heard his thought across the bond. Not that he had much to hide from her, but he would have to start being cognizant of the mental barriers around their bond.

"Vader," Ahsoka demanded when he didn't answer.

"Remember when I told you it was too dangerous for me to feel anything for you?"

She raised an eye marking and said, "You mean when you wouldn't admit you feel anything because you were afraid that Sidious would find out. Yeah. I remember."

She wasn't wrong. Because the more time Vader spent around her, the harder it was to hide the burning inferno of emotion he felt for her. An inferno that not even the careful shields and consumption of the dark side could completely dampen. And as always, Ahsoka had the uncanny ability to see right through him. And so had Sidious. Very, very briefly before Vader was able to cover it up again. He'd still been forced to do some quick thinking. Quick thinking that involved one of the many ruses and speculations Ashoka had neither encouraged nor denied about the parentage of the twins to people that hadn't known about Padmé.

"Sidious got the impression that you meant more to me than a former apprentice and friend who betrayed me. Perhaps that was my fault. It took a lot of restraint to listen to him defame you and not retaliate. I was having… trouble with my control."

That was understating it. In fact, he'd been so focused on keeping his emotions and instincts under control, on preventing himself from taking his lightsaber and challenging Sidious right then and there, that he'd inadvertently given Sidious something else to cling onto.

"What did you do?"

It wasn't accusatory. There was nothing to accuse him of. He was still Sidious' apprentice. He was Supreme Commander of the Imperial Military. He was even now official second-in-command to the Empire. Their plot was still secure.

"I suggested we were closer during the last year of the Clone War than I'd disclosed to him. That Padmé checked, and so did I in the Force, and that there was no twin. He thinks Leia is mine and Padmé's, that Luke is ours, and that you raised them as twins to hide them."

"That was some quick thinking," Ahsoka commented, sounding impressed. "And you're sure Sidious fell for it?"

"He had no reason not to. If anything, I think he's more worried about whether or not I'll turn on him because of you before he can get his hands on Luke and Leia."

"He put a bounty on Leia's head, you know. Alive only. Supposedly for killing Tarkin. Leia found out about it and is quite proud. Of course, Luke has one too. But not nearly as high, so he just sits there and pouts while Leia brags." Ahsoka didn't speak for a few moments. "So what does this mean?"

"It means that his spies are going to be watching and reporting every time my respirator even hitches. We're going to have to seize all contact. Probably until the war is over. Until then, Sabé and Diya will pass information between us."

"That could be years," Ahsoka stated.

"I know." He held out his hand, knowing he didn't have to verbalize what he was asking for.

She stared for a while, and then he watched her reach into her utility belt and take out the comm he'd given her seven years ago. That she hadn't lost it once, when he remembered her losing at least three during the Clone War, probably said a lot about how much she'd cherished it. Probably even unknowingly.

When she placed it in his hand, his right one, he crushed it in his fist until it was little more than pieces and put them in his own belt to discard later.

"I guess this is it for a while then," she said quietly.

Unable to stop himself, he reached a gloved hand, the same one that had just crushed their only means of communicating with each other, to her face. She closed her eyes while he traced her markings. Part of which appeared as the insignia of the Fulcrum.

"How long before Sidious spies start to suspect you've been gone too long?"

"Another hour or so."

She tilted her head, leaned into his touch on her face. "You planned this?"

"I planned for the possibility of Diya sparking a physical fight with Veers."

Diya's grudge against Veers went back before the war even started on one of her many stealth mission tracking Jedi. His ground troops nearly overwhelmed and captured her team, outsmarting her at every turn. Her team was able to retreat after a direct conflict wherein Veers narrowly escaped Diya's deadly aim. If Vader hadn't already been watching Veers before then, he would have afterward.

"What fortune that they didn't." She paused before saying. "I made this trip by myself. My ship is more secure."

"Definitely," Vader agreed.

She opened her eyes and got to her feet before leading the way to where she'd parked her ship on the opposite side of the facility where he'd parked his own.

* * *

**AN: **1) So I have a final chapter count for this story, which means I have officially finished writing this beast of a fanfic. It also means that there will be a faster update schedule so I can get this thing uploaded. What that schedule will be? Eh. Probably every two to three days or as fast as me and my beta can edit them. We're both in school though. So probably every three days. Sometimes two on weekends.

2) I thought it was obvious what Operation Mortis was, but many of you had no clue. Lol. Anyway, here it is.

3) If you want to see the full chapter as it was intended and envisioned, head on over to archive of our own. I have the same username over there.

Hope you enjoyed. Review please!


	71. Intervention

**Chapter Seventy-One: Intervention**

Ahsoka wasn't sure if she'd rather be back dealing with the ambush from the Empire on what was supposed to be a diplomatic mission that they'd known going in might turn hostile or dealing with returning to the Rebellion base. Both meant more work. But Ahsoka wasn't sure which one would help her headache. Certainly, the jostling chaos of a fight wouldn't help. But neither would sitting through the three meetings she'd been forced to put off in her rush off the planet to help Barriss in a diplomatic mess she'd gotten herself in.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Barriss asked her as the transport landed and they began to file off the ship.

"Yeah."

Barriss gave her a skeptical look reminiscent of when they were both padawans in the field together, and Ahsoka came up with a plan that neither the Council nor their masters would have strictly approved.

"I'm fine."

"This is the third time I've seen you pop that headache medicine in the last twelve hours," the older woman pointed out. "How long has it been since you slept or ate anything other than ration bars?"

Ahsoka shrugged. "A couple of days. I think."

"Ahsoka."

"I promise. I'll get some sleep as soon as we get through these meetings," Ahsoka assured the woman as she headed to her quarters to get ready.

Despite her insistence to Barriss that she was fine, Ahsoka couldn't help lying on the couch and closing her eyes. She just needed a few minutes…

There was a knock on her door.

"So much for that," she said with a sigh and swung her legs over the side of the couch to sit up while opening the door with the Force.

In filed Diya, Cal, Merrin, Barriss, and Rex.

Ahsoka sighed as she looked at Diya, Cal, and Merrin. Han, their new companion, was absent. Likely running a supply mission. Some days, she looked at them and couldn't help but be amused by their antics. Like Master Yoda would sometimes look at her, Vader, and Obi-wan. Other days, she greatly sympathized with Master Windu's longsuffering displeasure at something she, Vader, and Obi-wan had gotten into.

Today was a Master Windu day.

"What now?" Ahsoka groaned.

"Nothing," Diya answered immediately.

Ahsoka looked at Cal skeptically.

"_Honest_," he said.

"Then what—?"

"Consider this an intervention," Merrin suggested.

"What do you—Diya? What are you doing?" Ahsoka asked as the girl went to her room.

"Getting dressed."

"For what?" Ahsoka asked. "And why are you doing it in here?"

Diya poked her head out the room, "Because I'm playing you for the day."

Ahsoka bolted up from her place on the couch.

"Are you insane?"

"No. You are, kid," Rex said, pushing her back down on the couch. Ahsoka didn't argue. When Rex started calling her "kid" again, he wouldn't hear anything she had to say. "Three days of no sleep?"

Ahsoka looked at Barriss, knowing she was to blame for this. "I said a couple."

"We put all our information together and figured out it was longer," Barriss replied.

"Merrin," Diya called, coming out the room wearing one of the military jacket dresses Ahsoka wore for official meetings. In her hand, she was holding what looked like a makeup bag. "Help me fix my markings to match Ahsoka's. As best you can anyway. Most people aren't going to look that close."

Merrin took the bag out of Diya's hand and began setting out tubes and containers on the table while Diya sat next to Ahsoka.

"Guys, this isn't a good idea."

"What isn't a good idea is you not getting any rest. And not going to medical? Barriss said she thinks your headaches might be from a knock to the head," Rex said.

"They're not. I got it checked out." Ahsoka turned to Diya. "You can't just pretend to be me."

"It's not like I haven't done it before," Diya said with a shrug.

"Yeah. In the field is one thing. But this isn't just a fight. This is," Ahsoka groaned and rolled her eyes, "a lot of politics, unfortunately."

"That's even better. You hate politics. So when I slip up and do something non-political, it won't be any different. Easy."

"Stop talking. You're making my hand unsteady," Merrin said.

Ahsoka turned to Cal next. He could generally be easily reasoned with.

"Tell them they're overreacting."

Cal gave an apologetic smile and said, "I really don't think they are."

"I can have you all court-martialed."

"You could," Cal agreed. "But you won't."

Ahsoka scowled. "Traitor." She crossed her arms and looked at all of them, finding no ally. "All of you."

"Wouldn't be my first time. At least this time, it's for your own good," Barriss joked.

Ahsoka might have found that amusing some other time.

"Barriss and I are going to personally escort you to medical," Rex declared. "And then you're coming right back here, and I'm starting a rotation for two guards at your door. No Rebellion business for the next rotation. At least."

"Rex."

"May and Obi-wan will deal with Luke, Leia, and Winter," Rex added.

"You can't keep me from my children."

"I will when it involves your health. They'll live for a day."

"They haven't seen me in almost a week."

"You act like they're not used to you going on missions for that long at a time," Diya pointed out. She stood to her feet now that Merrin was finished. "They'll be fine. They'll even agree that you need to rest. They've all been worried about you. They said you seemed tired."

Ahsoka sighed. "Nothing short of fighting you guys is going to stop you. Is it?"

"Nope," Diya said, pulling her boots on over her tights.

Ahsoka sighed in defeat. "Fine."

"See?" Diya grinned, the rasp from her voice gone as she imitated Ahsoka's voice. "I knew you could be cooperative. Don't worry. We can handle the Rebellion for one day."

"At least," Rex was quick to say.

"That is so weird," Ahsoka said in reference to Diya's transformation.

Diya's grin broadened, a canine flashing in the process, before heading out the room with Merrin and Cal, following behind her.

"Come on. To medical with you," Rex ordered.

Ahsoka didn't have the energy to argue. She grabbed a cloak as to not be seen and giveaway Diya's ruse. Then she walked with Rex and Barriss on either side of her to medical as they avoided the more populated hallways.

The doctor was waiting for her when she got there.

"General," the human woman with dark hair, dark eyes, and tanned skin that reminded Ahsoka of Breha said after she shooed Barriss and Rex out. "You just came in for a simple scan after a mission, right? I heard you hit your head and have been having headaches."

"Yeah. But that's normal. I've been having chronic headaches for years dealing with the Rebellion. And it's been a lot more work lately. So naturally, they're worse."

"Well," the woman began as she directed Ahsoka to lie on the table, "better safe than sorry. You never know."

Ahsoka just lay back on the table. The more she cooperated, the sooner she could get out of here and get some sleep. Loathe as she'd been to let Diya take her place and to let the rest of High Command and her generals deal with the running of the Rebellion, she couldn't say she didn't need a break. Things had been pretty non-stop the last few months as the war with the Empire escalated with a frenzy that not even the Clone War had. Or maybe it just seemed that way when she was overseeing it all. No wonder the Jedi had been blind to the chancellor being the Sith right until it was too late to stop him. They'd been too distracted to notice he'd been turning the Republic into his Empire.

Noticing the scan was taking longer than it should, Ahsoka asked, "Is everything okay?"

"It's fine," the medic said. "I'm just rerunning the scan."

Ahsoka hoped it was nothing. Goodness knew she didn't need Rex trying to extend her house arrest.

When she was done, the medic allowed her to sit up while looking at the results on the screen of her datapad.

"I have a few questions to ask you. They may seem personal, but I need you to be honest and know that anything you say is confidential."

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. Slowly she said, "Okay…"

"Are you sexually active?"

Why were simple questions always so complicated for her?

"Depends on what you mean by active."

"Have you had sex in the last," she paused to check her datapad, " three months?"

That would probably fall into the range of her last encounter with Vader.

"Yes," Ahsoka finally replied. Not enjoying the doctor's crypticness, she asked, "Why do you need to know?"

"Because I think I found the source of why your headaches have gotten worse. You're pregnant."

Ahsoka outright laughed at the absurdity and impossibility of the idea.

"_Right_. I'm on an implant. I just got it changed eight months ago. It's good for five years. Try again."

"They do have a failure rate. A slight one, but there's a chance. It could have also been inserted improperly. Maybe it was even faulty, but there's no real way to know that unless, well, a person gets pregnant while on it."

Ahsoka opened and closed her mouth a few times before managing, "Run the scan again."

"General, I ran it twice. The results—"

"I said," Ahsoka began in a tone that left no room for argument, "run it again."

The medic gave her a considering look but gestured for her to lie down and reran the scan. The results came back the same.

Ahsoka stared at the doctor in silence, not quite sure what to do or say as the word kept running through her mind. Pregnant…

"_Pregnant_," Ahsoka breathed. Then, "I can't… Not now."

"You have options besides going through with the pregnancy. You're likely too far along for a medicinal abortifacient, but the medical droids here are programmed to do surgical abortions, and we have the equipment. If that's a choice you want to make, it will be discreet."

Ahsoka didn't answer. She couldn't even wrap her mind around the fact that she was pregnant at all. Let alone decide if she wanted to terminate the pregnancy or not.

"I need a few days."

The woman nodded and directed Ahsoka to lie back down to let a medical droid take her implant out. Then the medic went over her nutrition, prescribed her a vitamin supplement routine, ordered her to eat, get some sleep, and to take it easy.

"As easy as you can. Headaches are a pretty common pregnancy symptom. Some rest and making sure you eat better should help reduce them," she said kindly.

So kindly that Ahsoka almost regretted what she was about to do. But it was necessary.

After the medic handed her the supplements, she used the Force to relax the woman's mind and then sent a suggestive influence as she said, "My scan came back normal. The headaches were because of stress."

"Your scan… What's going on?"

Ahsoka increased the weight of the influence and said in a firmer tone, "My scan came back normal. The headaches were because of stress."

"Your scans came back normal. Your headaches are stress-related."

"Nothing some rest and better nutrition won't fix."

"Nothing some rest and better nutrition won't fix."

"You're going to clean the results of my scans from your records."

"I'm going to clean the results of your scans from my records."

Satisfied, Ahsoka let go of her hold on the woman and watched as she erased the data.

"Okay, General," she said when she was done. "You're good to go. Take it easy. I don't know what the galaxy would do without you."

"Thanks," Ahsoka replied as she got dressed again and stuck the supplements in her pocket.

Rex and Barriss were dutifully waiting for her when she came out.

"Everything good?" Rex demanded.

"Fine. Stress. Lack of sleep. Need a good meal. Doctor's orders."

Barriss frowned. "Are you sure, Ahsoka? You were in there for a while."

"Yeah. She just had to run the scan again. Got an abnormal reading the first time. It was fine after another scan," Ahsoka said, hoping she sounded more put together than she felt at the moment.

Barriss and Rex exchanged a look. And why did Ahsoka get the feeling they were both going to try to get ahold of the records of her visit to make sure she was telling the truth, no matter that it was a very clear invasion of her privacy? She smiled slightly. At least someone was worried about her. There was a time she'd had no one to.

Barriss headed to the kitchens to get food for her while Rex escorted her back to her room. He collected all her datapads for the Rebellion and reiterated, "Rest. The General would kill me if I let something happen to you because of your own stubbornness, and I didn't try to stop you."

"Yeah," Ahsoka sighed. "He probably would."

And that was if something happened to her before he found out she was pregnant. If he found that out… well, the state of the galaxy they were trying to fix was a testament to that.

Rex laughed and then left the room. Only when she sensed he was gone after giving instructions to the two soldiers on her door outside did Ahsoka let out a trembling breath and fall backward on the couch.

The Force had a wicked sense of humor. Always throwing her off balance by putting her in a situation that none of her extensive training could have ever prepared her for. Always putting her in those situations when the people she might have turned to were out of reach.

"What would Breha have asked first?" Ahsoka asked aloud.

That was easy. Breha would have asked if she'd told Vader about it and if not, why not?

For once, the answer to that was easy. Never mind that she'd just learned the news less than an hour ago, she had no way to contact him. Not without sending a message through Diya, who would tell it to Sabé, who would then tell it to Vader. And tactless as Ahsoka could sometimes be, even she knew telling Vader about this through a game of "comm call" with their intelligence agents was not the way to reveal something like this. Besides, she needed to clear her head and figure out what it was she wanted or thought she wanted first.

Ahsoka hadn't lied to Vader when she said that sometimes she didn't know where he ended and where she began sometimes. And one thing she knew about Vader was that he was very decisive. When he'd decided he wanted her, she knew that meant everything that came with her. As far as he would be concerned, there would be no decision to discuss. It would already be made.

Now that she thought about it, Vader might be thrilled at the idea. He wouldn't show it. But this was the man who would drop everything he was doing when the twins visited to cater to their every whim, despite Ahsoka insisting that he made it hard for her when she had to be the "bad" parent. The man who got a wistful look in his eye whenever she mentioned the twins as newborns or anything during those first two years before he came in the picture. He'd missed that. He still missed a lot, and he was painfully aware of it, whether he thought he was good at hiding it or not. He'd likely still miss a lot this time with officially being on opposite sides of a conflict.

Speaking of their goal, Vader might use this predicament as a reson to rush a coup on the Emperor when they weren't ready to take him. When he didn't have enough control of the Imperial fleet and enough admirals and grand admirals on his side to subdue anyone who tried to break off and defy him. It could potentially end up as devastating as the end of the Clone War all over again.

So whether she could contact him or not, telling Vader was off the table. For a while, at least. Regardless of what she chose to do.

"So, what do I want?" Ahsoka asked herself because that would be the next question Breha asked.

Before she'd adopted Luke and Leia, as a Jedi, having children hadn't been a possibility. So she never thought about it, even when she was contemplating leaving the Order after the war. Mothering Luke and Leia had been fulfilling in a way that she hadn't expected, but she'd never thought about having a child of her own. She hadn't even gone as far as thinking about that kind of thing with Vader for after the war. She'd always assumed it would just be them and the twins.

Breha would have called her out for her non-answer.

"That's not helping. That doesn't answer what I want now that it's a reality," Ahsoka said to herself.

Or maybe it did. Luke and Leia had been an unexpected bright spot in one of the darkest hours of her life. Neither conscious of the dangers of the galaxy they'd been born into. Both just ever faithful that with Ahsoka caring for them, with their chosen mother around, they would be safe. A faith both children continued to carry, even after the trauma of Alderaan's invasion.

May might have been the first person she decided to trust. But it was seeing Luke's and Leia's faith in her that had given her the unwavering resolve to stand up and fight again. She couldn't let this baby down either. Starting with giving it the chance to come into the galaxy, as bad as the timing was. Besides, what would it be like to have a child that might be able to grow up in a galaxy and was untouched by Palpatine's influence? Never having to know fleeing from their home-planet because they were being chased by a government that either wanted them dead or wanted to exploit them.

Force.

What would people do when she couldn't hide her pregnancy anymore? When she was giving orders and moving troops and discussing the terms of a new government with a newborn in her arms? A toddler on her hip?

Ahsoka huffed. Since when had she cared about any of that?

"Pregnant," she said again to herself.

Who would have ever thought?

It occurred to her that she didn't know much about how togruta pregnancies worked, let alone how a hybrid pregnancy would work. She looked over at the datapad Rex had left behind, the one with none of her rebellion work on it. She had a lot of reading to do.

Ahsoka sat up from her place on the couch, only to regret it as the pounding of her headache returned.

"After some sleep," she said. "And some food."

* * *

**AN: **1) To those who read Force Distortion and knew this would happen, here it is. To those who just wanted it to happen, here it is. To those who weren't sure, and were actually thrown off because throughout this story I've made sure to point out that Ahsoka gets headaches dealing with Rebellion stuff, and didn't know that headaches are a lesser-known symptom of pregnancy and might be a little surprised, here it is!

2) It would have been so phenomenally easy to be like every other fanfic (or even copyrighted work. Sigh) and just have Ahsoka have some moral compass that had her not believing in pregnancy termination or something. But I really don't think she would, and even if she did, I don't think it unreasonable for any person dealing with an unexpected pregnancy in an unstable situation to not mull it over. Considering Ahsoka's line of work, a termination would probably be the most reasonable option. So I wanted her choice to go through with a pregnancy, despite all the reasons not to, to be personal. I mean, that choice always is personal but I wanted it to be evident the personal reasoning behind her choice.

3) Also, it's been really important for me to show that Ahsoka really misses Breha and is still grieving for her in her own way. Hence why the only way she can come to her choice is thinking what Breha would have said because Breha is the first person she would have run to about this.

4) Got this one out in two days (technically two and a half). Idk if me and my beta can keep that up but we'll try.

Hope you enjoyed! Review please! I enjoy your insights!


	72. Disillusion

**Chapter Seventy-Two: Disillusion**

Luke and Leia were suspiciously quiet during dinner.

Oh, they were good at hiding it. At least from Winter, who animatedly talked about their day. They obligatorily chimed in at all the right parts. Leia made all the right snide comments, Luke responded that she was being too mean, and Winter giggled none the wiser. But it was just a little too practiced, a little too like reading from a script with none of the exuberance and passion the two usually exhibited in everything they did.

Ahsoka pretended not to notice. For all their sake. It was hard to carve out these nights, two days a week, amid her busy schedule. Though, it was much easier now that she wasn't going on as many field missions. Most people assumed that it was because she needed to stay at base to oversee other missions. Truthfully, although Ahsoka had no problem throwing herself into danger to accomplish an objective, she wasn't so heedless to not realize that she was a lot more durable than the life that grew within her. So strong, for sure, the medical droid she discreetly went to see assured her. Yet, so fragile.

Pulling back some worked out for her, though. More time with the twins and Winter, and no one else questioned her for "slowing down," assuming she was finally finding a balance.

Ahsoka decided to indulge the twins in their little game, long used to having to wait for the right moment. The right moment came sooner than she thought. Winter jumped out her seat and grabbed a folder off the coffee table not too far away.

"Where are you going?"

"Senator Mothma is helping me with an assignment for school," Winter replied. "It's something about the politics of the Republic, and I wanted to ask someone who used to be a part of the Senate then to explore how it was different, if it was different, from the Empire. Before the Empire disbanded it."

"You're going by yourself?"

"Threepio will be with me," Winter said, gesturing to the droid that was waiting for her at the door.

Before Ahsoka could tell the girl to comm her when she got to the former senator's quarters, she'd dashed out the door with Threepio calling for her not to run. Ahsoka rolled her eyes but smiled. At least the girl wasn't so sad about her parents anymore.

"Okay," Ahsoka said without waiting. "Are either of you going to tell me what's going on, or am I'm going to have to pry it out of you?"

"Nothing's wrong, mama," Luke muttered.

"Sure," Ahsoka said, nudging at the bond she had with the two since they were just days old.

"We don't wanna bother you," Luke insisted.

"We know you're busy. It's stupid anyway," Leia added.

"I am never too busy for the two of you. I wouldn't make sure we could have dinner like this if I were. I also wouldn't let you burst into a High Command meeting to interrupt me with a debate either," Ahsoka said.

Luke's ears turned red, and Leia looked into her lap in shame.

"We didn't realize you were in a meeting," Leia murmured.

"We're sorry," Luke apologized.

"Don't be. You saved me from Satine," Ahsoka grumbled.

They both giggled.

"You're weird, Mama. She's always nice when we have tea with her and Obi-wan on her visits. She tells us all about Mandalore," Luke argued.

"Oh. And she let us see the markings on her cane and explained what they mean on Mandalore. Do you know that in Mandalorian culture, a cane is a sign of strength and resolve? Not weakness. It's—"

"You're as subtle at changing the subject when you don't want to talk about something as your dad is," Ahsoka pointed out, cutting Leia off. "But I'll allow it."

The twins' mood plunged, and Ahsoka realized she'd inadvertently found the problem.

"What is it about your dad that has you upset?"

Luke and Leia looked at each other, an exchange in the Force passing between them before they both sighed.

"It's not really him we're upset about, just…" Luke trailed off.

Leia crossed her arms, a consternated look on her face as she said, "We heard the Jedi talking about dad."

Ahsoka frowned. "The Jedi?"

There weren't usually many Jedi who congregated on the base. Obi-wan and Cal were the only two that were ever-present. The rest were typically stationed on assignments elsewhere across the territory that was very tentatively dubbed Rebellion space. Not as generals—for the most part—but as consultants and advisors in the strictest sense of the word. Every now and then, they were present to check-in. Ahsoka noticed there were more than usual present at one time than normal. Seven, not including Obi-wan and Cal. But she hadn't thought it odd. More had passed through at the same time before.

"Yeah. It sounded like they were having a meeting."

Ahsoka had no doubt that Luke and Leia had been eavesdropping when they weren't supposed to be, but she was hardly going to admonish them for it now.

"Who was there?"

"We don't know. Obi-wan, for sure. The rest we didn't recognize. There was a zabarath with long dark hair and… someone named Kanan? A couple of more humans and another species we didn't recognize," Luke replied.

The zabarath was probably Eeth Koth. Diya and four other members of Ahsoka's Jedi preservation task force narrowly saved him, his wife, and their newborn daughter from Vader and inquisitors. Ahsoka wasn't sure how much subtle assistance Vader had given them since that was just after she and Vader agreed to let her take the Jedi under temporary protection. Eeth had never been brought to Alderaan, but Ahsoka had gone out of her way to visit the man and his wife and make sure they were well hidden from the inquisitors. He'd been eternally grateful, showering her with praises for her task force's intervention despite knowing Ahsoka had every reason not to intervene. Ahsoka supposed he would know. He'd left the Order shortly before the war ended.

Leia went on. "They argued at first. Obi-wan and the zabarath said that you should be there for the discussion. But someone else pointed out that it was Jedi business and that you no longer claimed to be a Jedi. The zabarath said neither was he, but they were all targets of the Sith and the inquisitors by virtue of being associated with a Jedi. Obi-wan agreed with him, but everyone else said no. Not yet. I got the feeling that they don't know whether or not they can really trust you."

Ahsoka couldn't say she was surprised. The Order always had a strange relationship with their own power. A polite way to say it was that they were merely aware of what they were capable of. More truthfully, they feared it. Ahsoka, in many ways, was the epitome of everything the Jedi had been taught to fear. Not to mention it was a powerful Force user in a position of government power that betrayed them in the first place. Of course they'd left her out.

"What happened after that?" Ahsoka asked.

"They talked about Palpatine, but their real concern was Dad. They said Palpatine was cunning and powerful, but that most of his power came from knowing how to manipulate people and sway them to his side," Leia replied.

They were underestimating Palpatine the same way they underestimated him before the war. But Ahsoka knew how to deal with that, and it wasn't what was troubling Luke and Leia.

"They said they were more concerned about what to do about Dad. They said he has a lot of military power, and that if they don't get him out the way, there's no hope for peace in the galaxy. No future for the Jedi because for every order Palpatine gave, Dad was there to enforce it. That defeating Palpatine without defeating Dad might create worse problems," Luke said, pushing food around on his plate.

Ahsoka said nothing immediately, not sure exactly what to say. Not sure how to respond to her twin children, confronted with their father's sins. Their father, who adored them. Their father, who continued to serve Palpatine for their sake.

"And it's not that we don't know Daddy does bad things and that people hate him. We learned about it on Alderaan. And Aunt Breha tried to block mentions of him on the holonet from us, but we saw stuff anyway," Leia said quietly, voice shaky. Then she looked up from her lap, her eyes shining with tears that she was too stubborn to let fall. Face red with frustration. "I don't understand it, Mama. I know what everyone says, and I've read about things, heard about things that people claim Daddy did. But he's not like that with us. He doesn't say it, but I can tell he loves us. And he loves you. He'd never let anyone hurt us the way people say he's hurt them. He wouldn't do things like that without a good reason. He… he couldn't."

"Right, Mama?" Luke asked, uncertain.

Ahsoka had been waiting for years for this conversation to come up. Had expected it to be soon with what she knew the common rebel said about Vader without thinking about it. And why would they think about it? They were the Rebellion, and as far as they knew, Vader was their enemy. Vader had personally wrecked many of their lives. So many.

Still, Ahsoka was unprepared for this.

"It's very… complicated," Ahsoka said. "Come sit with me on the couch."

Ahsoka sat in the middle of the couch, and the twins curled up next to her. Leia on the left and Luke on the right, as usual.

"No one's perfect. Your father probably least of them all. He's done a lot of terrible things. Sometimes for the right reasons. Sometimes, a lot of times, for the wrong ones. I can't say I blame anyone for hating him or feeling like they need to find a way to get him out the way," Ahsoka said gently.

"You mean for wanting to kill him," Luke said bluntly.

Why did they insist on making things harder for her?

Ahsoka continued without answering him. "But your father's been through a lot in his life. And I'm not saying that's any kind of justification for the things he's done, but none of that is the real him. He was very scared and very angry at a lot of people and did things he might not have done otherwise. He took it out on people who didn't deserve it."

"That makes no sense," Leia scoffed.

"Doesn't it? Remember your science tutoring, Leia. How even though you studied so hard and longer than Luke, you still barely passed it while Luke aced it? You were angry. What were you angry at?"

"Myself. For not doing as good as I wanted," Leia replied with a sigh.

"But you took it out on Luke, even though he hadn't done anything to you. He didn't even want to tell you his grade. Remember?"

"I guess…"

"It's like that with your dad. He's hurt a lot of people because he was angry about things that weren't their fault. He's hurt many people in his anger even when it was their fault but that he shouldn't have. But he's trying to make amends for it. First, by helping get rid of Palpatine, even if that means he has to pretend he's loyal."

"But that doesn't change what he's done," Leia insisted. "I don't understand how."

"Leia," Ahsoka sighed, "you're going to learn one day, even if you don't understand it now, that someone can be nice to you, maybe even love you, and still do terrible things to other people. It's like what they say about the Akul on Shili."

"It's our enemy, but even it loves its pride. It will protect its cubs," Luke said.

"It still doesn't make sense," Leia whispered.

Ahsoka knew there was nothing she could say to Leia to help her reconcile this. She'd have to figure it out for herself. She'd have to grapple with it like Ahsoka had been forced to at one time.

"Is that why we have to keep it secret? That he's our dad," Luke clarified.

"Part of it. For now, anyway."

Ahsoka would like to think otherwise, but there were people in the Rebellion that would happily see harm come to Luke and Leia for a bloodline they had no choice in being from. The Rebellion wasn't just made up of noble, honorable heroes who wanted to do the right thing. All they would see when looking at Luke and Leia were their enemy's children. However, there were enough in the Rebellion who would push back against those types and wouldn't hold Luke's and Leia's parentage against them. Besides, most people would be more disgusted with the woman, their leader, who willing laid down with Vader while knowing his transgressions and got pregnant with his child.

"Would you be like the Akul tamer then?" Luke suddenly asked. "The togruta warrior who knows how to tame the Akul and turn it into their friend?"

Ahsoka laughed. "Are you saying that I've tamed your dad?"

"No! Not like that," Luke said, sitting up. "I mean, you made him help you fight back against Palpatine. You made him your ally instead of your enemy."

"Luke," Leia said wryly. "You're saying she tamed Dad."

Luke looked at Leia, and then the two burst into laughter. Ahsoka smiled. Vader was going to die when she told him about this. Whenever she got a chance to talk to him again.

Luke suddenly stopped, propping himself up as he said, "What's that?"

"What's what, Lulu?" Leia asked.

Luke scowled at his sister and then said, "That. It's like… someone barely tapped the surface of a puddle with their finger. Except the Force is the puddle."

"Luke, what are you—Oh. I feel it now, " Leia said.

"What is it?" Ahsoka asked.

Leia shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even know if I can even call it a touch or a feeling. It's hardly even there."

"Strange," Ahsoka noted.

"The Force is strange," the twins said simultaneously.

Ahsoka laughed.

"Feel better now?"

The looked at each other again and said with a shrug, "We guess."

That was their way of saying that Ahsoka had helped them as much as she could, and they'd probably talk about it amongst each other later. Ahsoka could live with that.

"How about I clean up, you all get into some pajamas, and we have a holo-video night?" Ahsoka asked.

"The newest season of Black Krayt?" Luke asked, hopefully.

"Fine," Ahsoka said, feigning dismay.

The twins didn't notice as they ran out Ahsoka's quarters to their rooms just across the hall. As she was clearing the dishes, she suddenly felt in the Force what Luke had been so insistent on making them believe he was feeling. A barely-there touch to the Force. Hardly even there or able to be called a touch or a feeling. Tentative. Exploratory even. Or maybe even barely conscious or formed.

Barely conscious or formed. Like…

Ahsoka nearly dropped the dishes in her hands at the realization.

"Is that you?" Ahsoka asked aloud.

She pressed a hand to her lower abdomen, something she never did to not form the habit and give away her pregnancy. Especially to those who would definitely pay attention. Like Diya and Obi-wan.

Expectedly, she felt no physical movement. The books she'd read on the subject said that she should start feeling it around this time. But it was different for everyone, and she might not realize what the initial movements were. There was nothing that covered a child touching the Force for the first time in-utero.

Ahsoka waited and then felt the touch again. This time though, she was able to find it in the Force and gently touched back. A second later, the touch came back.

Was that even normal for a Force-sensitive child in-utero? Ahsoka was just going to have to assume that it might be. She had no way to know for sure. She hadn't known Padmé was pregnant long enough for anything like that to come up. Padmé might not have been aware of it since she wasn't Force-sensitive. The only other person to ask was Vader, and she couldn't do that right now.

The touch came back. This time a tad stronger and with something like wonder but not quite. Ahsoka touched back again. After a few minutes, the touch wasn't returned, nor was there a response when Ahsoka touched the Force there again unbidden. She guessed it had enough for now.

As Ahsoka continued to put away dishes, it occurred to her that if Luke and Leia could feel her baby's tentative exploration of the Force already, so might the other Jedi. The other Jedi, who already weren't sure if they could trust her. The other Jedi, who discussed what they were going to do with Darth Vader and left her out the conversation.

She liked to think Obi-wan would have told her. But based on the timing, Ahsoka assumed he'd been cornered right before leaving for his own mission. Some lead on Contingency. With security being no guarantee, no matter how many precautions they took, she couldn't fault him if he was waiting to tell her face to face.

She hoped, anyway.

"I need to work on my meditation and shielding," Ahsoka said to herself as she went back to her task.

* * *

**AN: **1) Both Ahsoka and Vader have lamented in this story about the twins eventually asking these questions. And it would be inevitable for them not to be confronted with this reality about their father when they live on a base dedicated to fighting against the Empire their father serves (how willingly anymore being up for debate). Further, Ahsoka has always lamented about whether she's doing the right thing when it comes to Vader. Even more, she laments about one day possibly being force to pick between Vader and everyone else. There's no easy answer to these things. A lot of people would have a lot of different opinions. But to be certain, the people who want to get rid of him are totally justified for feeling that way.

2) Just like a baby starts learning to control their bodies and even play in the womb, I figured a Force-sensitive child might also reflexively touch and play in the Force that way. Of course, Ahsoka isn't sure that's normal being she has no frame of reference for it.

Hopre you enjoyed! Review, please!


	73. Warning

**Chapter Seventy-Three: Warning**

If Ahsoka had known she'd need to hide a pregnancy one day, she would have diversified her wardrobe to consist of more than the fitted tanks, dresses, tights, and low waisted cargo pants she tended to favor. Because in that kind of wardrobe, there was no way to hide a seven-month pregnant stomach, no matter how small she was carrying thanks to years of fighting, being on the move, and her tall stature.

Ahsoka's saving grace, though, was that she had begun to expand her wardrobe since the start of the war. Ahsoka thought it ridiculous that some diplomats and planetary leaders would judge her based on whether she wore camouflage pants and a tank or a suit or a dress. But it gave her a good excuse for the short capes and wide jackets she'd begun to wear to hide and draw attention away from her midsection. Ahsoka didn't hold out much hope that she'd be able to hide the pregnancy much longer, though. It was sheer luck no one had noticed this far.

Already, Luke and Leia had figured it out and were treating it as just one more secret to hide. When she'd started wearing the capes and jackets, Diya, seldom missing anything out of place, pointed out their newness. Before the other togruta could ask anything else or attract anyone else's attention to it, Luke helpfully interjected that he thought it was cool. Leia added that it made Ahsoka look more authoritative. It effectively diverted Diya's attention, and she agreed with them both before continuing on her way. Ahsoka had given the two a wondering stare, but the two just gave her a cheeky grin and dashed off.

Then there was the fact that they stopped questioning the still feather-like but increasingly strong and less timid taps of their unborn sibling in the Force. Instead, the two had begun to touch back, playing the ethereal tapping game they used to play with Vader in the Force when they were much younger. When they started randomly and not so subtly discussing names right in front of her, Ahsoka gave up any pretense trying to keep her pregnancy hidden from them. From Winter too. Because Luke and Leia told Winter everything, and Winter was her third adopted child for all intents and purposes.

Ahsoka still hadn't outright told them. But she wasn't as careful about keeping her hands away from her stomach when it was just the three of them around. She'd stop covering herself with blankets and pillows when she was sitting on the couch in her personal quarters and they were in the vicinity. Once, she'd even absently played the physical version of the tapping game their sibling seemed to like to play right in front of them. Her pregnancy was far enough now that they could see when the baby moved sometimes. And after Ahsoka swiped a finger across her womb and a body part visibly swiped back in the same direction, Luke had excitedly blurted out, "That's cool!" Leia kicked him, and he remembered that he technically wasn't supposed to "know" or acknowledge their mother's pregnancy.

And Winter, sweet and caring but unyielding like her mother, had taken it upon herself to bring Ahsoka her meals. Breakfast in the morning, so Ahsoka didn't have to get up early for a chance to get into the mess hall before her day started. Dinner in the evening when Ahsoka was too busy or too tired to remember. Winter took careful note of the things Ahsoka left on her plate because they made her sick and made sure not to bring them again. She also kept a stash of ration bars, jerky, water, and sometimes even juice supplied in Ahsoka's office. How the little princess was getting her hands on all of it consistently, Ahsoka didn't know and didn't ask.

An effect of her pregnancy that was less obvious to others was her new and insane sensitivity to the Force. It was like when she, Vader, and Obi-wan or any of the Jedi would meditate together, using their combined Force power to find the solution to a problem with much more ease than they would have alone. But this increased sensitivity was without meditation (because _as if_ she have time for that).

A constant whispering in her mind when she made decisions about the Rebellion. A decision not to send aid to a Mid-Rim world that had broken out into rebellion against the Empire (the insurgency ended up running the Empire off the planet themselves while the fleet she'd refrained from sending was free to help fortify Kashyyyk). A decision to strategically retreat from Lothal, right before the Empire ambushed them with unexpected reinforcements. The decision to take Mandalore and solidify her alliance with the warrior society and make good on the promise she'd made to Bo-Katan before the Empire rose.

Sometimes, though, the sensitivity was maddening, the world was too loud, and Ahsoka had to actively work on shielding herself to tune out everything that wasn't important. She wondered if this sensitivity was what it was like for Vader. She wondered, if it was, how he'd gotten used to it. She wondered if Padmé had experienced such a sensitivity with Luke and Leia and hadn't known. Or if Padmé had experienced it but hadn't known what it meant or what to do with it.

Today the world was too loud, and Ahsoka abruptly excused herself for the rest of the day when she could no longer handle it. She would ask for forgiveness later.

When she got to her quarters, she threw off her cape and dress to put on something more comfortable, made a cup of tea, and settled into bed. Exhausted didn't even begin to describe her fatigue, and Ahsoka wondered at women who would willingly go through pregnancy more than once. Then again, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't running a rebellion.

Deciding she wanted sleep more, Ahsoka set the tea aside and settled more comfortably onto her pillows.

The scene changed. She wasn't in her room at the Rebellion base, and hazy images flashed before her eyes. Luke sitting in the pilot's chair of her ship. Leia somewhere, not in the image, calling his name. A combination of pain, panic, fear, and steel determination in the Force. The image changed. A baby cried. She handed over a newborn to Luke and left him, Leia, and Winter with instructions to take care of her. The image changed again, a cackling laugh, lightning, overwhelming darkness but not the kind from Vader that she was so familiar with and served as a comfort, a protective shield. The call of her name, and then nothing. Not darkness. Not the dark side. But nothing.

Death.

Ahsoka opened her eyes to her room. She reached over to grab her chrono and check the time. Three hours. She didn't even remember falling asleep. She put her chrono back.

For a moment, she was still, hoping the images she'd seen were just a fleeting dream, induced by worry, stress, and anticipation for the future. Something that if she didn't concentrate on, she wouldn't remember. But ever after minutes, the images wouldn't leave her head. Images so vivid despite the surreal haze that distanced her from them when she'd seen them.

As much as Ahsoka wanted to think otherwise, she couldn't deny what she'd seen was a vision of the future. The details and how the events would all come to pass were vague. But what had been clear was she gave birth, at some point in the future, she handed the baby over to the twins and Winter, and then, sometime later, she died.

The Force had given her a vision of her death.

That's what it looked like anyway. She'd had visions before, but it wasn't something she had a particular affinity for. That was one of Vader's many talents when he focused on it. Certainly, she'd never put too much thought into all the different ways a vision could be interpreted. The future was always in motion. Visions weren't always an inevitability. That was if they could even be trusted. Most of the time, they didn't even tell the entire story. At least, that's what Ahsoka tried to tell herself.

A chime rang through her quarters, and Ahsoka put a warm robe on to cover her stomach and went to answer her door. Her vision would have to wait.

Obi-wan was standing on the other side.

"You're back," Ahsoka pointed out.

She hadn't seen him since he left almost three months ago.

"How was your mission?" Ahsoka asked after she'd let Obi-wan into the room.

"Eventful enough that I found it necessary to talk directly to your contact about my finding and how they might affect Mortis," Obi-wan said vaguely.

While Obi-wan hadn't been at their gathering, his missions were vital to Operation Mortis. He frequently passed on information he found to Sabé. Sometimes directly to Vader. He'd helped them to organize the contingency operation. But if worse ever came to worst, if something happened to her or Vader or both, he had a far more important mission. Get the children somewhere safe and far away from any fallout.

Ahsoka gestured to the couch and said, "You can have a seat if you want. But I'm liable to fall asleep mid-sentence if I sit down."

Really, it was that if she sat down, he was more likely to notice her pregnancy.

"I don't plan to be here long," Obi-wan said. "I just need to tell you about a discussion I had before I left. Something I wish you'd been included in and that I should have told you about before my extended mission but didn't have time to. I—"

"If it's about the Jedi and their concern about Vader, I already know. The twins eavesdropped on your meeting."

Obi-wan sighed and wiped a hand over his face. "I should have known. I'd forgotten how good they were at hiding in the Force."

Hiding in the Force wasn't a lesson Jedi younglings had been taught so early in the temple, especially since hiding could be associated with darker arts. Why would a Jedi have needed to generally hide back then? But it was one of the first things Ahsoka and Vader taught the twins. That the Force was with them, but not to touch it unless it was an emergency. How to cover up the light, not to put it out or smother it, but so that no would see it.

"They weren't meant to hear that conversation," Obi-wan continued.

"No stang."

"What did they think about it?"

Ahsoka shrugged, just barely stopping herself from crossing her arms over her chest. That would have instantly given the pregnancy away.

"Leia's having a hard time reconciling the…" Ahsoka trailed off, searching for a word before continuing, "reconciling the nuanced personality of Vader."

"Nuanced," Obi-wan repeated dryly. "That's definitely putting it lightly."

"Well, excuse me if I'm trying not to completely shatter the innocence of my ten-year-old children when they've come to the realization that to a lot of people, their father is the villain of this conflict. Even more so than Palpatine. And even though he's trying to fix things, selfish as the reasons may be, those people aren't wrong," Ahsoka snapped, exhaustion getting the best of her.

Obi-wan, patient as ever, looked at her and said, "You know I didn't mean it that way."

Ahsoka sighed, letting out a deep breath and releasing her frustration.

"I know."

"That said, the Jedi do have a legitimate concern, especially so given your plans."

"So what? They sent you to me as their representative to advise me on what to do about him?"

"As if you'd listen if I were," Obi-wan teased. "Besides, I think I'm hardly qualified to lecture you in that respect, biased as I am about this entire situation," he admitted tiredly. "But no. I didn't come here to advise you. I came here to point you in a direction."

"What direction?"

"Dagobah."

"Dagobah? What's that?"

"Where's that?" Obi-wan corrected. "And it's where Master Yoda's been living in exile since the end of the war."

"Yoda's alive?"

"He escaped the purge and went to confront Sidious while I went to find Vader. He lost, and Bail Organa helped him flee Coruscant."

Ahsoka wasn't sure whether she was glad Yoda had stayed out of the way or not. On one hand, in his self-imposed exile, he couldn't get in the way of her and Vader's plans. On the other, he could have used the respect people had for him to help. As an altogether different matter, Ahsoka wasn't sure if she was still angry at him for reasons that had nothing to do with Vader or the Rebellion.

"I know you have your grievances with him, and I'm not going to offer you any reasoning or justification for any of his missteps. But I think you might find value in going to speak with him."

"What possible value could I get out of going to find Master Yoda?" Ahsoka asked, rolling her eyes and almost crossing her arms again. She paced away from Obi-wan instead. "So he can lecture me about the way of the Jedi? How dealing with or enabling the machinations of a Sith is misguided when he played inadvertent servant to a Sith for the better part of three and a half years? Thirteen if we include all the years Sidious played chancellor before that. At least I know exactly what I'm dealing with."

"Ahsoka, if you really want to protect Vader, if you really want to stop a fight between Vader and the Jedi when all of this is said and done, it wouldn't hurt to have Master Yoda on your side. He may listen to you."

"When did he ever listen to what I had to say?"

"Ahsoka," Obi-wan said gently, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I know it seems like Yoda should have been infallible. But he wasn't. I can't speak for what he might have reflected on in the last decade, but I do know that he regretted the part he played in your trial and expulsion. He always did. I think he'd be willing to listen now."

"If you're so sure he might be helpful, why don't you go get him?"

"Because you're the only one with enough information on Vader to convince him if he can be convinced."

Ahsoka started to argue with him but then paused. She had no interest in trying to convince Yoda to help her if he hadn't extended it himself yet. Nor was she under any illusions that he would tell her anything except the Jedi dogma that she'd long set aside. But Yoda might be able to help her work out her vision, loathe as she was to ask him for help. This wasn't just about her future, though. It was about the future of the galaxy. The Rebellion. Her children. Vader. She owed it to them to suck up her pride and get the help just minutes ago she'd been lamenting not having.

Finally, she said, "I'll go. But not because you say so. Only because I've got a nagging feeling in the Force that I should."

"Of course," Obi-wan replied with a smile.

Ahsoka expected him to leave, the Jedi in Obi-wan never allowing him to linger places longer than necessary. Today, he hesitated.

"What?" Ahsoka asked.

Very deliberately, Obi-wan's gaze drifted to her midsection and stayed there. Then he looked back at her face, raised a considering eyebrow, and left.

* * *

Ahsoka took a shuttle with Rex and three other rebel soldiers the next morning to Dagobah. Though she tried to set the vision out of her mind until they got to Yoda, the one-day trip gave her few distractions. As though sensing her distress, she felt the light touch in the Force that was her child, her daughter, if her vision was to be trusted, attempting to play.

"Not now, little one," Ahsoka said. She strengthened her shields as to not pass on the impression of her worries to her unborn child.

The baby continued to tap, though, and finally, Ahsoka languidly reached out into the Force to tap back, making sure to send the impression of reassurance back. Seeming content with that, the child finally settled in the Force, and Ahsoka wondered if this was an indication of how stubborn this child would be.

"General. We're dropping out of hyperspace and entering Dagobah's atmosphere," Rex said.

Ahsoka got up, making sure her jacket was still in place and carefully zipped before going to the cockpit.

"It's foggy," their pilot said as he brought them into the atmosphere.

Not just that, but the planet was strong with the Force. It would take a trained Force-sensitive to navigate a safe landing. She took over for the pilot, tapping into the Force to use a sight that didn't require her physical eyes. It took a while and some careful maneuvering, but Ahsoka managed to land them safely on a firm patch of land, which was saying something considering only a few steps off the boarding ramp, Ahsoka was stepping into thick swamp.

"Master Yoda is here?" Rex asked skeptically as they waded through swampy waters and then back onto more solid land.

Ahsoka understood Rex's reservations. She would have had her own, too, if not for the insistent direction of the Force. Eventually, they came upon a small hut made of clay. Yoda was standing in front of it with his gimer stick as though he'd been waiting for her. For all the years that had passed, Ahsoka felt like she was back in the Jedi Temple again, going to face yet another reprimand from the Council that she'd, truthfully, probably deserved.

For a moment, Ahsoka just stared at the old Jedi, trying to get her conflicted emotions under control.

Finally, she managed in an even tone, "Hello, Master Yoda."

"Knight Tano," Yoda replied. "To see you doing well, good it is."

"I'm not a knight anymore," Ahsoka replied reflexively. "I renounced being a Jedi a long time ago."

"So informed, I have been."

Ahsoka wondered how he could have been informed about that on the backwater planet in the Outer Rim with no sign of sentient life besides them. Perhaps Obi-wan had visited.

"Come, come," Yoda said as he made his way into his small hut.

"He wants you to go in there?" Rex asked, bewildered.

"Yep," Ahsoka sighed. Stars, it would be a wonder if she could get through the small door with her stomach so distended now. "You guys stay out here and wait for me. Go back to the ship if you want."

"Right…" Rex said. Ahsoka knew he wasn't going anywhere.

Ahsoka carefully knelt down, and with less awkward maneuvering than she thought she'd need, managed to crawl into the small hut. Yoda had a fire going with something cooking over it while he sat on a small pallet with his gimer stick in hand. Although sitting on her knees would have been easier, that would cause her montrals to scrape against the top of the roof and force her to hunch over. Thus, Ahsoka sat on the ground and crossed her legs underneath each other.

"Expecting you, I have been," Yoda began.

"I don't know what Obi-wan told you to expect me for, but whatever it was, that's not what I'm here for."

"Only informed me that guidance, you might seek. The nature of that guidance, told, I was not."

Ahsoka didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But at least that meant Yoda had no expectations.

"I didn't want to come here, but right before Obi-wan pointed me in your direction, I had a vision and thought, why not?"

"Seek this old Jedi's counsel for a matter of the Force, you do. Yet a Jedi, no longer, you proclaim," Yoda pointed out.

"Well, I didn't have a lot of options. I'm coming to you as another Force user for help with something that's out of my depth. But if you don't want to give it, fine."

Ahsoka started to begin the difficult process of maneuvering to crawl out the hut. Yoda gently tapped her on the knee.

"Only an observation, I made. Guidance, if it is what you seek, I am willing to give. Much conflict, I sense in you, young one."

Ahsoka settled back down. "That's an understatement."

Yoda made a gesture with his hands to continue.

"I saw my death," Ahsoka stated bluntly, "At least, I think that's what it was. But I'm not sure what the Force is trying to tell me by showing me that. Is it a warning so that I can change it? A heads up so I can be prepared? Or some self-fulfilling prophecy that if I try to prepare for or change will happen anyway."

"Concerns you, this vision does. Yet what you fear, your death is not," Yoda deduced. "Truly, what worries you, tell me, you must. Only then, perhaps decipher the will of the Force in sending this vision to you? Hm?"

Ahsoka should have known it wasn't going to be that easy.

"I… I'm afraid of who I'm leaving behind. I'm afraid of what will happen to them if I'm not there."

"The Rebellion, you speak of?"

"No. People very close to me. My…" Ahsoka trailed off and then rolled her eyes. She didn't claim the Jedi name anymore, there was no Order for her to be ostracized from, and Yoda had no grounds to reprimand her. Mostly anyway. "My children. Luke and Leia. They're Padmé's children. And Anakin's." She debated with herself for a moment before unzipping her jacket and uncovering the swell of her pregnancy. "And this little one."

"Strong in the Force, the unborn one is," Yoda pointed out.

"I know. I think it's affecting my sensitivity. I haven't had a vision that vivid in… well, ever."

They sat in silence. Nowhere near as companionable as one she might fall into with Vader when there was nothing else to say between them. But neither was the silence awkward. If anything, it was expectant.

"What think you, young Tano?"

Ahsoka had forgotten how cryptic Yoda could be. She groaned as she said, "I don't know. That's why I'm asking you."

"Some idea, you must have, hm?"

Ahsoka looked away before finally asking, "I used to think that Anakin's vision at the end of the war was a self-fulfilling prophecy. That because he had the vision and then tried to stop it, he inadvertently caused the vision to come true."

"Spoke to me of a vision of death, young Skywalker did. Of the details, forthcoming, he was not."

Ahsoka knew that. Perhaps Vader being more honest about the details of his visions might have made a difference. She didn't blame him for withholding that information. Admitting to his relationship with Padmé would almost certainly have been seen as an indiscretion that would have called all his past judgments into question and forced him out the war he was so sure he had been vital to.

"It was about Padmé, and I used to think it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. That the more he tried to stop it, the more likely it was to come true. But now I don't think so. Now I think it was a warning not of her death specifically but a warning that if he continued on the dark path he was treading, it would always and inevitably end with her death in the near future."

"Fall to the dark side, you think your master was always going to, hm?"

"No. That's not… I don't think that. I just think that he had been falling for a long time and that it was no coincidence he started getting those visions after he killed Dooku," Ahsoka replied.

She'd had a long time to think about those last few days of the Republic and gotten bits and pieces here and there from Vader about it over the years. If Padmé had always been in danger of dying during childbirth, Vader would have had that vision even without knowing that she was pregnant. So there had to have been something else that was the trigger. Sidious could have been manipulating him by sending the dreams. But from what Ahsoka knew of the dark side, it couldn't conjecture a vision in the Force that wasn't a possibility anyway, even if she bought into the idea that Sidious had sent them. Vader was a lot of things, but weak-minded when it came to blantant Force manipulation was not one of them. Thus, it followed to her that the vision had been a warning. A warning that Vader had been falling for a while and that if he didn't catch himself, there would be no return.

Ten years ago, she might not have believed that. But after spending almost half her life intimately associated with Vader, most of that time as a Sith, it wasn't hard for her to look back at things in hindsight and catalog every action, every betrayal, and every loss that had led to his fall. Every action, deed, and personality quirk that once were his greatest strengths turned into his greatest weaknesses.

"A warning about yourself, you believe your vision is," Yoda stated. "If that is what you think, the answer, only from yourself, can come. Confront your fears, you must, if interpret your vision and the will of the Force, you desire."

"I had a feeling you would say that," Ahsoka sighed as she swiped a hand over the side of her belly. The returning movement was almost instant. Finally, she said, "I think I can save Vader."

"Beyond your ability, such a task may be," Yoda pointed out. "The weight of his choices, your burden to carry, they are not."

Ahsoka was glad he hadn't shoved the old proverbial Jedi saying about the dark side forever dominating one's destiny once they turned to it.

"Perhaps they weren't meant to be. But he saved me once, even when the odds were against me, odds that were even more stacked because of my own choices that made it look like I was guilty." She paused. Then, "You could have overridden the votes of the rest of Council when they voted to expel me. Why didn't you?"

_Why did you believe I could be guilty?_ The questioned unasked but implied.

"Know who to trust, given the circumstance of the war, we did not. A clear answer, from the Force, we could not receive. Thus err on the side of caution we did. Clouded, manipulated by the dark side, unwittingly, we were at the time. Let our fear get the best of us, we did. Ashamed to admit it, I am," Yoda admitted, much to Ahsoka's surprise. "Much time to reflect over our treatment of you, I have had over the years. One of my greatest failures and regrets, it is. For that, young Tano, apologize, I do."

Not sure what to do with a contrite old Jedi Master, Ahsoka shrugged and said, "Well, you all weren't wrong that it was my greatest trial up until then. And while I don't think it did the job of making me a better Jedi, I think I am a better Force servant because of it."

She zipped her jacket back up and began to move to crawl out the hut.

"You're right that the weight of Vader's choices is no one's burden but his own. But the same is also true of the Jedi. Vader used to be a Jedi before Sidious got ahold of him and tricked him. If the Jedi are worth saving even after being manipulated by Sidious, then I think Vader, at least, deserves the chance to prove that too," Ahsoka explained. "Thank you, Master Yoda. It was unexpectedly good to see you again."

Ahsoka didn't wait for a response. She crawled through the tiny door and out the hut.

* * *

**AN: **1) I tried to be a little more practical with Ahsoka hiding her pregnancy. I'll be honest, I really don't buy that Padmé was able to hide her pregnancy as long as she did as petite as she was with twins. It would have been very possible that a scan might have missed the second child, but as public a figure as she was, I doubt she would have been able to hide it. But that's what happens when there aren't enough women involved in a movie. Canonically, Ahsoka is pretty tall and it would be much easier to disguise a pregnancy.

2) I was not going to sit here and pretend that Luke, Leia, and Winter were not going to figure out Ahsoka was pregnant. Of course, they knew.

3) The theory about Anakin's fall, his vision of Padmé's death, and exactly the parameters of Palpatine's powers is something I've thought about and philosophized for a while. And I've never seen anyone quite look at it that way. Visions don't depend on certain prerequisite knowledge... which is why I don't think... well. That's a spoiler. I'll explain that later.

4) Also, Yoda. My thoughts about him are pretty much what's in the chapter.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, please!


	74. Choice

**Chapter Seventy-Four: Choice**

There were four notifications left on his comm console when Vader returned to his quarters from a mission. One from Palpatine and three left at the top of each consecutive hour by Sabé. It never boded well to keep the Emperor waiting. But for Sabé to be so desperate to get in touch with him, Vader knew it had to be something vital. Vader knew how to buy time with the Emperor. But Sabé never indicated anything that was so desperate to reach him.

He was just about to return her call when the top of the hour came and she comm'd through instead. They had just connected when Sabe came on the line and said without greeting, preamble, or pleasantry, "The Emperor knows."

That could mean a great many things. But for Sabé to so desperately try to get in contact with him, for her to say that without any explanation and without her usual respectful and professional candor only meant one thing. Still, he needed her to elaborate.

"Knows about what?" Vader asked.

"Where the Rebellion base is at least. Whatever else depends on what else Bail Organa knew," Sabè elaborated.

"Bail Organa?"

"The intel from your Imperial Center agents that you told me to look into. When you thought it was weird that Palpatine was leaving the palace or the planet without notifying you or not being specifically slotted into Palpatine's itinerary. You told me to see if I could get a closer look. Well, I did. Bail Organa is who I found and where they were holding him."

While Palpatine may have had his spies watching Vader around every corner and keeping track of his main fleet, Vader figured that was a game two people could play. With the help of dozens of spies settled in Imperial Center, Vader had gathered full databases on Palpatine's every movement. Days and weeks of his master's schedule from the time the man awoke in the morning to the time he went to bed. Every Senator, every diplomat, every dignitary he encountered along with their extensive profiles. The rare times the man left the Imperial Palace and the even rarer times the man left the planet.

Vader's original purpose for the spy network around Sidious was to find a way to avoid a direct confrontation with his master, even though he was prepared for his and Ahsoka's conspiracy to end that way. Hence going through every moment of the man's day to cause a tragic "accident" of nature that would bring about the man's death in a verifiable way. Because, of course, Sidious expected Vader to come lightsabers blazing to kill him. Sidious, however, wouldn't think to check the possibilities of more subtle means. Sabé thought it was savvy. A less violent death meant a smoother transition into a new Imperial era than a culmination that equated an obviously violent overthrow. But Vader's purposes had been much more selfish.

While he had no qualms about a direct confrontation with Sidious, tricky as he knew the man to be, he had many qualms about Ahsoka following him into that confrontation. As far as he was concerned, his own life would be a worthy price to pay if it meant taking Sidious down with him.

Ahsoka's life was not.

And as to not have to make that choice, Vader had enough forethought to do everything possible so her presence wouldn't be necessary.

Still, the times Palpatine left the palace and the planet certainly intrigued him. He had Sabé pass over to Obi-wan and his team as they unraveled the mystery that was Contingency. Undoubtedly, the Emperor leaving the planet without Vader to accompany him was to handle business that would cause Vader a headache later.

It appeared now was the start of that headache.

"I knew it would be too risky for any of us to do anything to stage a rescue, not without exposure. So, I've been keeping a watch on his records daily. He's been kept alive and periodically tortured for information, but today he's been scheduled for execution. The only reason I can think that they did that is that they managed to get something out of him. At least enough pieces to make a big picture," Sabé explained in a rush.

"Do you know exactly what?"

"I don't know. It depends."

Depended on exactly how privy to her secrets Ahsoka had allowed Bail to be. How much he'd been told by either his young daughter or his wife. How much he might have inadvertently observed for himself.

"How long ago did you get this information?" Vader demanded.

"A few hours ago."

"And have you warned the Rebellion?"

"I don't have Ahsoka's direct comm. Diya's not answering."

"I'll contact Ahsoka," Vader decided. "And I don't care how risky it is. Put a team together to get Organa out that prison."

Sabé nodded.

Vader cut the comm and once again ignored a second hailing from the Emperor, putting in the comm frequency that Ahsoka used for the Rebellion. She'd given it to him to contact her in the case of an emergency. This felt emergency enough.

After a few seconds, the comm lit up, and Ahsoka's head and upper torso came into view.

"Vader. What are—?"

"The Rebellion has to evacuate. Now."

Ahsoka frowned, her lips twitching some as though she was debating what to say. Finally, she said, "We already are."

"Have you been attacked already?"

"No," Ahsoka admitted. "Just… I just woke up a few hours ago with a feeling. We've been preparing ever since."

Vader hadn't been aware that Ahsoka was so in tune with the Force to sense an impending attack that could still be more than a few hours away.

"A feeling?" Vader asked.

"It doesn't matter." Before Vader could press, Ahsoka continued, "What intel do you have?"

"Sabé's found where the Empire has been holding Bail Organa and has been observing his status. He was suddenly marked for extermination. Sabé thinks it means they got something out of him. She's not exactly sure what, but it was enough that he'd outlived his usefulness and wasn't worth torturing for more information."

If Ahsoka was affected by that information, she didn't show it. She simply nodded and understood what Vader was asking.

"He didn't know anything about you. He knew I had a high ranking informant in the Empire, but not exactly who."

"Did you tell him any of the exact nature of the intel you got?" Vader asked.

"No. When I gave High Command reports, it was always mixed in with the rest of my intel. Nothing special or distinguishing."

Maybe not, but certainly there was some intel that Vader had given Ahsoka that she would have only known because she'd gotten it from him. Depending on what Organa knew, it wouldn't be much of a stretch for anyone looking at the data to put the pieces together. It certainly wouldn't be a stretch for the Emperor, a man powerful with the dark side of the Force, to put the pieces together and figure out his betrayal.

"The Emperor knows," Vader stated.

He expected her to tell him not to be too hasty or so paranoid, to stop and think and lay out all the pieces and the different possibilities.

Instead, Ahsoka frowned and looked down before saying, "I think he knows too."

"He's been hailing me for the last ten minutes. There's no telling what for. Whatever it is, I think it's a trap."

After a pause, Ahsoka replied, "I think it is too. Guess that leaves us with one option."

"Spring the trap."

The Force was suddenly very still and quiet. Vader only recalled the Force being this still on a few occasions. The first as he'd fought with himself over whether to leave the Jedi Council chambers and join the conflict between the Jedi masters who'd left him behind and the Sith who'd offered him to join. He'd known exactly what his choice would be if he left that room. He'd known—or thought he'd known—exactly what that choice would mean.

The second time was a little over a year ago. In a fit of barely controllable rage, he'd been ready to damn all their planning to hell to kill Sidious for coming just so close to getting his hands on Luke and Leia. For the trauma he'd put them through in his effort to get his hands on them. It was probably the closest thing to the mindless haze he'd been in just after he first turned that Vader had been in years. And only Ahsoka pleading with him in a way she never had, redirecting that mindless haze, made Vader talk himself out of such hasty action against Sidious.

Now, there was again a choice to make. Though, the choice that needed to be made was not clear to him. On that, the Force was silent as it had been those times before, which could only mean that it had already given him the tools to make that choice.

"I think this is it," Ahsoka finally said, making the choice for Vader.

She didn't have to explain what _it_ was. It was a lot sooner than either of them had anticipated. About two years too soon. But if Vader was compromised, there was no choice in the matter.

The Emperor hailed again, and Vader knew he'd kept the man waiting too long. But what did it matter at this point?

"I'll concern myself with that. You evacuate that base and get yourself and the children somewhere safe."

He expected an argument from her. That there was no way in the universe he was more than likely headed off to Imperial Center to face Palpatine, and she wasn't following him. But she surprised him.

"I am," Ahsoka said in a wry tone with a roll of her eyes. Then she sobered and said, "Vader."

He felt their bond open up from her end, the pleasant hum that he'd gotten accustomed to when she was near coming across. But her Force signature was much more magnified. There was something familiar about it. He'd sensed a Force signature magnified in this way before. But he had no time to ponder it, nor was it harmful. He simply reached out in the Force, finishing the connection and creating a feedback loop. The loop sent the warm vibration back across the bond like a retreating tide before it came back again, repeating over and over again.

"Ahsoka."

She averted her gaze before looking back at him and saying, "Be careful. I…" She trailed off and sighed before muttering, "Never mind."

It was too late, though. Vader sensed a confession just at the tip of her tongue.

"What are you hiding?"

"Nothing!" she said quickly and then cringed. "Okay. It is something. A little something. But I promise I'll tell you when I see you."

He sensed her resolve across the bond, and Vader knew that even if he tried to get it out of her, she would not tell. Even if he wanted to try, he didn't have time. The Emperor hadn't hailed again, but he knew the man was waiting.

"Fine," he finally said.

Ahsoka nodded, and the image winked out, cut off from her end.

He headed to the bridge only to find his clone commander and Lieutenant Piett with grim expressions as they stood over the dead body of his admiral. Commander Dare's blaster was still smoking from where he'd apparently shot the admiral point-blank multiple times. The said admiral's body was bleeding out on the formerly pristine black tiles. However, neither men seemed concerned as they stood to attention at Vader's approach.

Vader said nothing. Only inclined his head to the dead body and looked back up expectantly

"The Emperor has made contact," Dare informed.

Vader sensed there was a lot more to come, so he only tilted his head in askance.

"He said there's been a new development about the war. An impending attack by the Rebellion and that we're to set course for Imperial Center immediately," Piett said.

"Is that so?" Vader asked.

"That's what we were supposed to tell you," Dare continued. "Apparently, the Emperor has evidence of high treason against you. His Highness wanted your admiral and lieutenant to secretly bring you back to Imperial Center under that pretense to deal with you himself."

"I disagreed," Piett replied.

"The admiral was displeased with that so…" Dare trailed off, his gaze drifting to the body.

Vader looked down at the body once more before looking up and saying, "Congratulations on your promotion, Admiral Piett."

Piett swallowed but gave away nothing else that might indicate surprise. Finally, he said, "There was one more piece of information from the Emperor. Apparently, they've found the location of the rebel base. They're sending Admiral Thrawn to destroy it and capture its leaders. The Emperor gave no further details."

Apprehension rose in Vader at the mention that Palpatine was sending Thrawn to capture the base. He wasn't surprised necessarily. With Tarkin dead and with Palpatine apparently wanting an immediate audience with Vader, Thrawn would be the next best choice. A brilliant tactician, rivaling Vader in tenacity and creativity with a startling intuition and foresight about people for someone without a sensitivity to the Force. So brilliant that Vader had desired to have the chiss on his side of this conflict. But in his and Sabé's evaluation of him, Vader realized that it was impossible to know where the man's loyalties lay. He was as masterful at hiding his true hand with people as he was in battle strategy. Not to mention, Thrawn would surely not turn against Palpatine without the surety that Vader would win against him. Thus Vader had decided he would make use of the chiss admiral after Palpatine's defeat. The man was intelligent enough that he wouldn't dare challenge Vader's rule.

But that was after Palpatine was dead.

Now?

If anyone was a genuine threat to Ahsoka, Thrawn was the one. The man had been fascinated with the rumors of the elusive Fulcrum. And though he hadn't gotten an update about Thrawn in almost a year, no doubt he'd been even more fascinated when he found out the elusive rebel's identity. There was no telling the intel he had on Ahsoka. The things he'd probably managed to put together about her—strengths, weaknesses, ticks. All of it likely deduced just from going back and finding all the information he could find on her previous exploits in the Clone Wars, the Jedi, and that short broadcast when she'd declared war against Palpatine, the only recent footage the Empire had of her since she never participated in the propaganda her Rebellion sent out.

So sorely tempted Vader was to ask Piett if he'd gotten the coordinates of the base. So sorely tempted, if he had, Vader was to order them to that location. To fight off Thrawn himself. But if he did that, Vader would lose what little element of surprise he might have left when going to confront Palpatine.

Ahsoka could handle it. He'd known what she'd be up against and trained her for it accordingly. If anyone could mar Thrawn's perfect track record, Ahsoka could. Ahsoka _would_. There was no other option. And Ahsoka might murder him if he threw away the opportunity to confront Palpatine while he was still was in the dark about their plans and how much they knew about his contingencies. Before Palpatine could regain his bearings and readjust.

"Your orders, my lord?" Piett asked.

Apparently, Vader had been lost in his thoughts for much too long.

"You heard the Emperor. He wants to straighten out this misunderstanding out personally. Set course for Imperial Center," Vader ordered.

"Yes, sir," Piett said, turning to command the crew.

Ahsoka could handle herself. Besides, he'd wanted her as far away from the Emperor as possible during his confrontation with the man. Perhaps this was the Force's way of granting him that desire.

Mind made, he wrapped the dark side around himself as a shield and went to go prepare the ground troops for whatever they might encounter when they got to Imperial Center.

* * *

**AN: **1) So... the official update schedule is now every two days until this is all posted. And frankly, I can't wait so that I can stop tweaking it.

2) Not a lot happens in here but it does represent significant character growth for Vader. Here, by himself, he chooses to go after Palpatine instead of going to help Ahsoka against Thrawn. Certainly a while back, Vader would have made the choice based on his fears. Here, although he's afraid, he makes the choice to go confront Palpatine. Ironically, a year or so before this point, he wanted to make that same choice but, again, it was out of fear. Here, for probably the first time, he sets his fears aside and goes where he's needed most and trust the people he cares about to figure it out.

3) Also, there's a theme in the Star Wars community that Palpatine always gets ousted in a direct confrontation and no one ever considers that he can be ousted any other way. A few stories play with that idea. Here, Vader is considering other killing methods as a viable option and looking for a way to do it. But, of course, before Vader can attempt a more discreet kind of ousting, the Emperor figures it out.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, please.


	75. Accordingly

**Chapter Seventy-Five: Accordingly**

Ahsoka opened her eyes, snapping out of her sleep in the middle of the night cycle as she heard the Force as clear as if someone were whispering directly into her montrals.

_Danger. Evacuate the base. Leave._

When the Force had been that loud, it had never steered her wrong. Especially not during her pregnancy. Thus she got out her bed, ignoring her aching back and hips from the weight of her eight-month pregnant belly. She threw on a pair of wide cargo pants, a tank top that pulled away from her stomach, and a short, wide, baggy cargo jacket. Then she tucked the shoestrings of her combat boots into her shoes before slipping her feet in with some difficulty but a lot less than she would have had if she had to find a creative way to tie the strings. Finally, she put her lightsabers and her comm in her pocket and stuck a hand blaster in the back of her pants. In times like these, she really missed her utility belt, but that was like asking someone to look and notice the swell of her stomach.

Once she left her room, time passed in a flurry of waking up the entire base, assigning cruisers, destroyers, and transports to get supplies and people away, and keeping a lookout on their radar for an incoming attack. Though she'd been surprised to get a call from Vader on her personal comm when she'd been clearing out her office, she hadn't been surprised to hear what he had to say.

Bail, who had been missing for just over a year now. They'd gotten something out of him. Not that Ahsoka could blame him. It was a wonder he'd held out as long as he had and an even bigger wonder he was still alive at all. But whatever they'd gotten out of him and managed to piece together was enough that Vader was sure it was a threat. And though Ahsoka didn't usually like to encourage his paranoia, the Force told her very clearly that this wasn't paranoia. They were at the culmination of something.

And after she'd told him that, though in not as many words, after she'd tentatively opened their bond after months of carefully ignoring it, after she'd felt the vibrating warmth of his caring for her, she'd almost spilled everything. About the baby, about her vision, about all her fears and apprehensions. She'd managed to stop herself at the last minute. Vader would worry enough as it was. No doubt, he already had to talk himself out of coming to the Rebellion base himself to ensure her and the twins' safety. There was no point in giving him more to worry about out of her own selfish whims.

She pocketed her comm again and made her way to command center.

"Are our satellites picking anything up yet?" she asked.

"They're picking something up alright," one of her techs answered, pointing to the radar where an entire fleet was headed their way.

"Not just any fleet," Diya said, coming into the room. "That's Thrawn's fleet."

"Admiral Thrawn?" Ahsoka asked.

"Grand Admiral Thrawn," Diya corrected. "Palpatine gave him a promotion after that battle a few months ago."

Ahsoka didn't need the reminder. That report had been dismaying. They'd not just lost that battle against him. They'd been decimated. Not even because of any costly mistakes on the part of her own generals and admirals, but just because Thrawn was a genius battle tactician. His genius was only second to Vader and without the tendency for recklessness and utter chaos. This was a battle she should be taking the forefront on. This was a battle where she should be at the front of the line commanding her soldiers to avoid Thrawn's schemes, but…

"Why aren't you at the front lines?" Ahsoka asked vaguely.

"I delegated. I'm here to get you out of here," Diya said. "Not to mention, your kits won't leave without you."

"Obi-wan should have—"

"He left for a mission yesterday."

Of course.

"They were supposed to have left on the first transports."

Diya shrugged. "Like I said."

Ahsoka hesitated. On one hand, she'd never been one to leave the fighting to the people ranked below her. But on the other hand, she was more of a liability to the fight than she was a help. The extra weight of her condition now affected the precarious balance needed to use her lightsabers. Even if she didn't have a balance issue, her distended belly was in the way. Still…

If she was inclined to stay despite all that, she'd feel her abdomen cramp into one of the false labor contractions she'd been sporadically having over the last two months or so.

Ahsoka sighed, deciding to set her pride aside. This wasn't about her right now. She could direct things from her ship.

"Okay," Ahsoka relented.

Diya opened her mouth and then closed it.

"What?" Ahsoka asked.

"I just… I expected more pushback from you."

"Well, you know. Every now and then, I can be reasonable."

Diya scoffed and turned to leave the room with Ahsoka following her.

Waiting outside for them was Rex with Luke, Leia, and Winter, Barriss standing calmly off to the side.

"You should have been on one of the first transports," Ahsoka said to Luke, Leia, and Winter. Then she looked at Barriss. "So should you have."

"Mama. Seriously?" Luke deadpanned.

"Diya wanted my help to convince you to leave," Barriss explained.

"Not convince. Just your help in de-escalating her so she'd see sound reason. You are scarily good at that," Diya said.

"Yeah. Isn't she?" Rex said, glaring in Barriss' direction.

Ahsoka sighed. He hadn't let go of Barriss' betrayal of her either. Over a decade ago, though it may have been.

"Okay. We have no time for this. Thrawn is probably already in the planet's orbit. So if your goal is to get me out of here, we better do it now," Ahsoka said.

They headed to her personal ship, much less recognizable than her large battleship cruiser, which was being used to divert attention from the Empire of her escape. As they did, Ahsoka kept abreast of the battle over her datapad, giving direction and order to her generals and admirals remotely over comm.

"Ahsoka," Rex finally said. "You're slowing us down."

"I know, but…"

"You had a personal hand in training almost everyone at the front lines of this fight. I was there when you trained some of them," Rex reminded her. "They'll be fine until the evacuation is finished. You need to get out of here."

Ahsoka groaned but put her datapad and comm away. They continued ahead, and Ahsoka ignored the tremors indicating the Empire had managed to get some of their ground forces past the Rebellion's defense in orbit.

_Stop. Right now. Don't go further,_ the Force whispered to her.

"Wait," Ahsoka said.

"General," Diya said in a longsuffering tone. "Wha—?"

An explosion shook the base, and the hall they were about to head into collapsed.

"What the hell?" Diya exclaimed, holding onto the wall as the shaking stopped. "How the hell did Thrawn get a bomber past so quickly?"

"The Emperor didn't promote him to Grand Admiral for nothing," Rex replied through gritted teeth.

Diya groaned, drawing one of her blasters. "We'll have to go around. General, Luke, Leia, Winter. Behind me. Rex and Barriss, flank from the rear."

They weren't even halfway to the hanger on their new rout when they began to hear blaster shots.

"How the hell did they get in?" Diya asked.

"There's that temple ruin nearby," Barriss pointed out.

"We made sure it was secure first thing when we got here!"

"It's Thrawn, Diya," Ahsoka stated. "He probably researched the entire history and legend of those ruins on the way here and figured out how to blow up a wall and get in. It's not a—"

_Duck. Now._

Ahsoka moved into the adjacent hall, pushing the children along with her. Rex, Diya, and Barriss followed, just missing the blaster fire that rained down into the hall from the direction they had retreated from.

Rex let out a curse before rounding the corner to shoot at their assailants.

"Keep going," he ordered. "I'll cover you."

Before Ahsoka could argue with that, Diya, Barriss, and even her own children (traitors) corralled her down the hall to continue to the hanger. Unfortunately, their troubles didn't end when they got to the hanger where her ship was. Troopers were there to greet them, and Ahsoka began to suspect that somehow, Thrawn managed to get forces past them that they hadn't picked up on their radars. If he survived her and Vader's coup, she'd have to ask the man how he'd managed that, though she could think of a few guerilla tactics that would have done the trick. She hadn't known the Empire knew how to employ such tactics.

They took cover behind a bunch of crates. Diya stood every now and then to pick off two or three troopers and ducked down when their opponents waited for the smoke to clear to get better shots.

"Alright, Ahsoka," Diya said. "I know the whole point of all this was to get you out of here before all the fighting started, and that you humor us by acting like you actually need our protection when really you're more protection to us. But we could really use your talents to clear our path right now. So, you know. Whenever you're ready to live up to that deadly reputation of yours."

Any other time, that was exactly what Ahsoka would have done. Would have already done.

"Yeah…" Ahsoka began. "About that. I can't use my lightsabers right now."

Diya sprung to her feet, got off three more shots, and ducked again.

"Why? Did you leave them behind? Even if you did, when has that ever stopped you?"

The way Luke and Leia exchanged a look didn't escape Ahsoka's notice.

Ahsoka reached over to pull on her arm, a shy, nervous habit from her youth that she'd all but totally broken. It only manifested itself when she was cornered into an awkward situation that she wasn't sure how to deal with. The rare times that happened, Vader had something to do with it. Because he was probably the only one that could get under her skin and make her blush and feel embarrassed. In a roundabout way, Vader had something to do with her problem now.

Diya's eyes suddenly widened, and Ahsoka forced her arms back to her side, realizing too late what the old habit had revealed.

Diya's mouth opened and closed a few times before she said, "_Ahsoka_!"

"What?" Barriss asked.

Diya raised to make two more shots over their cover before ducking down again.

"You're pregnant."

Ahsoka sighed. Trust Diya to never be subtle.

"Yes."

"How the—?"

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "You know how."

"What—_Who?_"

"Who else?"

Barriss, having finally caught on to what was happening, looked at Ahsoka and asked, "When did this happen?"

"Not too long ago."

Diya practically exploded at that.

"_Not too long ago!_" she parroted. "That's practically a whole baby! You could drop that kid right now, and it would be fine. That's way long ago! And you didn't tell us. Are you insane?"

"I couldn't, Diya."

"Why?"

"You know why."

"Oh, this explains _so _much. We thought you were acting weird. Wait," Diya said, her eyes narrowing. She paused to get off more shots in the chaos of the hanger. "Tall, dark, and psycho knows, right?"

Ahsoka didn't answer.

"Ahsoka. He _knows_. Right?"

"He knows I have something to tell him."

Diya let out a string of curses in at least three languages. Togruti being one of them, the huttese she picked up in the Outer Rim the next, and the other language Ahsoka was unfamiliar with. Based on the words from togruti and huttese, the unknown ones were probably just as vulgar.

"Do you know how pissed he's going to be when he finds out you were pregnant and you didn't tell anyone? Ahsoka!"

"Look. I know all this. You think I didn't think about all that when I decided to keep quiet about it?"

"I feel like I'm missing quite a bit here," Barriss declared.

"You are. I'll fill you in later," Diya directed to Barriss as she pulled one of her blasters off her hips. She held it out to the mirialan woman. "For now, I'm going to need you to help shoot."

Barriss shook her head, looking at the weapon. "I can't. You know I—"

"Yeah. Yeah. You were forced into some shit, it made you into someone you didn't like, and you're a pacifist because of it. If we weren't being shot at and our best fighter wasn't out of commission, I'd respect that. But for now, I need you to get the kriff over yourself. We were all child soldiers and traumatized by war. We can start a kriffing support group after we get out of this alive. For now, shoot some stormtroopers. And for stars' sake, don't set it to stun," Diya added.

Barriss took the blaster with shaky hands. Knowing Barriss was going to be useless with it, Ahsoka started to reach for her own blaster. Leia took the blaster out Barriss' hand before Ahsoka could maneuver to reach her own. Then she rose up with Diya to help thin out the stormtrooper forces so they could get to the ship.

"Leia!" Ahsoka exclaimed.

"Mama, why else did you teach me how to use these things if not because you knew I might have to use it one day?" Leia asked over the fire, managing to make her marks even when she glanced down at her mother. "I'll join Diya's support group later."

"That's the spirit, little general," Diya said.

"Don't encourage her," Ahsoka snapped.

Barriss, finally getting over herself, pulled Leia back down and took the blaster from her.

"I got it," she assured and then looked at Ahsoka. "Diya and I will distract them. Use the cover to get to your ship and get out of here."

Ahsoka started to protest, but Barriss held up a hand and said, "Ahsoka. I owe you. A lot. Let me return the favor." She stood up and joined Diya in her fire. "Go."

Ahsoka sighed. Unfortunately, she had no choice. She was useless right now.

"Come on," she told Luke, Leia, and Winter. "Stay close."

The children nodded and clung onto different parts of her jacket as they made their way across the hanger, ducking behind crates, tables, and what few fighters were left along the way until they got to her ship. Artoo was already there with the ship warmed and trying to calm down a fretting Threepio.

"Oh, Mistress Tano! You made it. I feared the worst when you didn't come at the time Commander Rex had prescribed."

Ahsoka ignored him and guided them out the hanger with Artoo's help. True to Rex's plan, her flagship cruiser, which was fighting to get past Thrawn's blockade, provided them with the cover they needed to get past them with relative ease.

She punched in the coordinates to their first hyperspace drop. Once the view in front of her turned into the streaking blue of hyperspace, Ahsoka fell back in her seat, exhausted.

"Mama," Luke said, coming into the cockpit with Winter and his sister. "Are you okay?"

Ahsoka sighed, taking off her jacket. "Fine. Hungry. Hot."

"I'll go get the rations," Leia said. She disappeared to the back of the ship and came back with bundles of ration bars shortly after in lieu of warming up some of the better tasting ration plates.

Ahsoka took the two Leia offered to her and took a bite of one. Then she leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. Casually, she swiped a hand across her stomach but didn't get a physical response back. It wasn't out of the norm. She'd read that the commotion of a mother moving about throughout the day could rock an unborn baby to sleep. Wouldn't have been the first time that had happened.

She had to be due soon. But it was hard to know with hybrid pregnancies. According to what research she could find, it just depended on how human or togruta the baby ended up being. Human pregnancies usually lasted a few weeks longer than togruta ones. Based on the few discreet scans she'd gotten with her medical droid, this child was a lot closer to human than togruta. But Ahsoka supposed she'd see eventually. What mattered was that she should at least have a few more weeks to go.

And then she wasn't in her ship but standing next to Vader. Watching him and his fleet in a tense faceoff with Imperial forces. Not just any Imperial forces. The Imperial Center fleet, solely dedicated to the protection of Imperial Center. A look down confirmed that they were over Imperial Center. What they were saying wasn't particularly clear, but Ahsoka got bits and pieces. Vader under suspicion of treason. The Imperial Center forces demanding they be allowed to board and for Vader to come peacefully to see the Emperor.

Ahsoka would have laughed if the images weren't so dire. Vader? Follow _any_ command peacefully? Clearly, they hadn't grown up with him like she had.

Predictably, peace didn't follow, and Ahsoka got a glimpse of fire beginning to exchange before the scene faded. She opened her eyes to Luke shaking her awake.

"We're about to drop out of hyperspace," he said.

"Right," Ahsoka said with a yawn as she turned forward to prepare them for their next jump.

She should have set the coordinates for the next drop off point, one of a series of more to make sure they weren't followed or tracked before they rendezvoused at the next temporary base. But she hesitated. Her vision showed Vader was about to head into the battle they'd always planned. The battle where her forces joined with Vader in a final showdown with the Emperor. But by that point, they were supposed to have stolen most of Palpatine's military might by carefully picking off his most loyal servants and putting their own people in place.

At best, right now, most of the fleet and armies had a healthy respect and fear of Vader. But not enough to rally with him and mutiny against the Emperor and those who supported him. Like Thrawn. At best, right now, Ahsoka was sure they'd follow Vader if he decisively defeated Palpatine, but that was harder. It was why she and Vader had meticulously put this plan together.

But when had any of their plans ever gone accordingly? They hadn't planned on being in outright war again for another couple of years. They hadn't planned on finding contingency. They hadn't planned on a relationship beyond a tentative friendly alliance. And they hadn't planned in any of their wildest imaginations on having a baby during this mess. They hadn't planned on that _ever_. But all that happened anyway. And if Vader was going to be confronting Palpatine anytime soon, Ahsoka was going to be there whether he liked it or not.

The children would have to come with her. She'd prefer to get them to the temporary base and then go, but that would take her days out of the way to Imperial Center. And as far as she knew, Vader was headed there right now. There would be plenty of places to hide the children on the Imperial planet after fighting her way past the blockade.

There was only one thing that made her hesitate.

In her original vision, she hadn't been pregnant when this happened. Having had those visions several times since the initial revelation, she remembered handing over a baby girl before heading to that fight.

But the future was always in motion. Visions could be little more than the manifestation of fears. Visions could also be flawed.

Ahsoka put it out her head. Here and now.

She punched in the coordinates to Imperial Center and went to get as much rest as she could during the two and a half-day trip.

Just a few hours out from Coruscant after an hour of trying to hydrate, walk off, and distract herself from more false labor contractions that only got more painful and more consistent and much closer together; after talking herself into denial that it was real labor; after feeling a steady trickle of liquid between her legs and seeing streaks of mucus and blood in her panties—it was then that Ahsoka realized with horror that her original vision hadn't been flawed at all.

* * *

**AN: **We are in the home stretch, you guys. Next chapter is the last interude of the story which gives way for the last part of the story. And God know I can't wait for it to be done. Like, I've enjoyed it, but this has been my most ambitious work yet. But a lot of good stuff coming. I can't really even decide what's my favorite. amongst it all. I'll let you all decide when you see it.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, favorite, follow, or whatever you do to show support.


	76. Luke's Interlude

**Chapter Seventy-Six: Luke's Interlude**

Mama was fearless.

Luke knew that for a lot of reasons. The first was Dad.

Luke knew with the same certainty that he knew Mama's and Leia's presences in the Force that Dad would never do anything to harm them. That didn't mean that Dad wasn't scary sometimes. His presence in the Force sometimes as cold, harsh, and unforgiving as the blizzard that came through Aldera a few years ago. Other times, it could be a roaring inferno of anger and what Luke was starting to suspect was just a bit of madness, especially when he was angry. The hint of the person that the rest of the galaxy was terrified of for good reason. Because Luke had never been under any illusion that Dad was a good person to everyone. They'd been taught too much about the Empire and its injustices to ever really think that, even though Leia denied it for a long time.

But while Luke and Leia even tread carefully around their father when he was in an awful mood, Mama was unaffected. She usually gave Dad that unimpressed look she gave him and Leia when they got into something they shouldn't have. Then he might say something mean, Mama would return in kind, and they'd go back and forth until Dad went from a blizzard or inferno to the cloudy overcast in the Force that held the promise of a terrifying storm in the right conditions but was mostly harmless. Mama and Dad going back and forth like that was practically background noise at this point, even though they'd gotten a lot better over the years. Especially lately, now that they'd mostly stopped pretending like they didn't really care about each other.

The second reason Luke knew that Mama was fearless was… well, everything else. Aunt Breha used to fuss over Mama for the stuff she got into all the time when she thought Luke, Leia, and Winter weren't there or paying attention. Surrounded on all sides by stormtroopers? Chased through hyperspace by the Empire while trying to get a Jedi to safety? A blaster injury to the leg? Encountering Dad on a mission when they both had opposing objectives? Mama shrugged and sometimes outright laughed it all off, much to Aunt Breha's frustration.

_"Ahsoka," Aunt Breha said. "You can't keep doing this. You have children to think about. They'd be devasted if something happened to you."_

_"I am thinking about them," Mama snapped. She usually took Aunt Breha's fussing in good humor, but Luke might be in a bad mood, too, with a blaster burn to the hip. "I'm thinking that if I don't stop the Empire, they'll have to hide forever. And we both know it's a matter of time before that stops working."_

_"But do you have to be so reckless about it?" Aunt Breha asked, not backing down. She never did. Not from anyone. "I lose sleep at night wondering what you've gotten yourself into when I haven't heard from you."_

_"It's not reckless if it's within my ability to handle," Mama replied, this time more gently._

_"This goes beyond Luke and Leia, and you know it," Aunt Breha said firmly. Then more softly, she said, "You don't owe the galaxy anything. You don't owe _Vader_ anything."_

_"Actually, I kind of do." Then Mama said, "I'll be fine, Breha. Trust me. Most people have a lot more to fear from me than I have from them."_

Either way, there wasn't anything in the galaxy that Luke knew of that would give his mother pause, let alone scare her.

That was why when he sensed the brief spike of fear from Mama, before she realized it and sealed off their bond from her end, Luke knew something was wrong.

"Is Aunt 'Soka okay?" Winter asked softly, seeing Mama pace past their open bunk yet again as she'd been doing for the last hour.

Luke looked at Leia, who was frowning and had her eyebrows furrowed.

"I think it's the baby," she said, confirming Luke's suspicion.

Everything that was wrong with Mama usually had something to do with the baby nowadays. But not really wrong. More like annoying to their Mama. She didn't complain, but Luke could tell when she was getting uncomfortable and hot in the capes and jackets that she wore to hide her stomach. Or when him and Leia helped her prop her feet up at night because her ankles were swollen after a long day on her feet. Or how she'd stopped practicing with her lightsabers because her stomach was in the way. Or lately, how she got this sad, worried look on her face.

But this was a different type of wrong. Mama wasn't just a little annoyed. Something was happening, and whatever was happening was enough to scare Mama.

"The baby's never made her act this way before," Winter stated.

"No. It hasn't," Leia replied.

Luke decided that if Mama was going to block them out, he could at least touch the place in the Force where he knew the baby to be. Almost immediately, the baby touched back, much stronger than usual even. So if Mama was scared, it wasn't because anything was suddenly wrong with the baby.

He opened his mouth to say that when their mother let out a painful cry, followed by one of Dad's more vulgar curses. He, Leia, and Winter didn't need to consult with each other before they all dashed out their bunk. They found Mama in the conference area sitting on the floor on her knees with her hands holding onto her stomach and trying to control her breaths.

"Mama?" Luke asked tentatively.

"Hold on, little ones," Mama said tightly. She took another breath and said, "I'm okay."

Whatever pain had struck Mama passed, and she pulled herself to her feet before going to sit on the benches against the wall. She gestured them over to her, and this time Luke, Leia, and Winter did pause to look at each other.

"Hurry up," Mama said in the firm tone she used when she was about to start giving orders. "I don't know how much longer I'll be able to think about anything else, let alone talk."

When they were all standing in front of her, Mama began, "We'll be dropping out of hyperspace soon. Over Imperial center. I'm not clear what exactly we're going to find, but more than likely it's going to be a space battle. Normally this wouldn't be something for you to be concerned with. But the baby's coming, and I won't be able to pilot the ship past the fights and blockade to the surface."

"What do you mean 'the baby's coming'?" Leia asked urgently.

She already knew. They all did. But Leia was always going to ask for clarity on things.

"I mean, she's coming in the next few hours."

The only other pregnant person Luke had been around was Winter's aunt, years ago. And by the time they'd seen her again, her cousin was a chubby three-month-old that could laugh and smile. The only images he had of people having babies were from the shows on the holocaster and holonet, and it was always tense and dramatic and, frankly, terrifying. He knew, of course, that it wasn't always like that. But Luke was pretty sure having a baby when they were about to drop into the middle of a space battle was worse than the dramatic situations on holo. That was without mentioning that Mama was the only adult around. No Aunt Breha. No Dad. No Diya or Obi-wan or Rex. Just them.

If Luke wasn't already scared enough, his mother's next words did the trick.

"Luke, you're going to have to fly us down to the surface."

"_Me_? Mama, I can't—"

"Yes. You can. You have to."

"But I've never flown anything like this! I've never…"

"It's just like the flight simulators. Nadia told me how you're lightyears more advanced in the simulations than any of her licensed pilots. If you're that far advanced, you can do it. You have to, little one," Mama said.

It was gentle, but it was also an order that he had no choice but to follow. Even though he didn't know if he could follow it. Even though he wasn't fearless like Mama was.

Mama frowned at him and then laughed. She reached out for his hands, and when Luke took them, she pulled him close and pressed a kiss to them.

"I'm not fearless, little one," Mama said.

The mind shielding Dad and Mama taught Luke when he could barely walk must have been weak right now because Mama usually couldn't read his thoughts. Not like that anyway. It seemed like she could sometimes. But that was because Luke and Leia were like their Dad sometimes, and Mama knew what Luke and Leia were going to do before they even decided it based on her experience with him.

"But you are," Luke insisted. "You're the bravest person I know."

Mama laughed again. "But that doesn't mean I'm fearless. It only means that I know how to put my fear aside to do what needs to be done. It means I don't let my fear control me. It's one of the first things you have to learn to be a Jedi."

"But you're not a Jedi anymore," Luke reminded her.

"No. I'm not," Mama agreed. "But I learned some good lessons from them. This was one."

Mama's hands suddenly tightened around his, and she grimaced, pain leaking into the Force around them, even though Mama was trying to keep it to herself. When the pain subsided, Mama let out a breath and continued.

"I know it's going to be scary. But you can't let that stop you. You've been learning to fly for years. And you've been learning the maneuvers you're going to need today for more than a year now. You can do this. Artoo will help you. Remember, the Force is with you. Trust it. Listen to it. It will guide you. Always."

Luke swallowed and nodded his head.

"Okay."

Mama gave Luke specific instructions about where to go to land when they broke Imperial Center's atmosphere. Or, at least, as specific as she could get through her pains. Finally, it was clear to Luke that Mama couldn't do much more talking. So he assured her that he understood and would be fine even though he was far from fine. Then Winter helped Mama to one of the bunks while he and Leia strategized in the cockpit. They were thirty minutes from dropping out of hyperspace.

"I'll manage the guns," Leia said after she shut down Threepio. The last thing they needed was him panicking over their shoulders. "If we're going to be dropping out of hyperspace in the middle of a space battle, we're probably going to have to shoot at some people."

As Luke worked with Artoo to prepare for their drop, he couldn't help being slightly in awe of Leia. Like Mama, she was fearless. Or brave, rather. She was calm and put together like Mama with the only thing out of place about her being a lock of hair that managed to escape the two buns she wore on either side of her head.

"How are you not scared? How do you talk about it like we're just about to pull a prank on one of the pilots?" Luke asked.

"I was that first time. On Alderaan. But it just starts to go away when you realize you either do it or something worse happens. Especially after they killed Aunt Breha," Leia finished in a whisper.

Sometimes, Luke saw Leia's dreams. And when they were bad enough, Leia slept in bed with him. So he knew that Leia still had nightmares about when Aunt Breha was killed. Luke had been with Winter. But Leia had been standing right there next to their aunt. Moff Tarkin had given the order, and Leia watched the stormtrooper put four bolts through Breha's chest. How she'd been able to think past it all to get out her blaster and shoot back, Luke still didn't understand, despite Leia's explanation.

"So I either do this or…"

Luke trailed off. He didn't want to think about it.

_You should think about it,_ Leia answered across their bond. _Think about what will happen if you don't get us onto Imperial Center._

Then aloud, Leia added, "Mama thinks about what will happen to us if she and Daddy fail. It's why she's fearless. That's what I think about when I use a blaster."

Luke didn't answer as he turned in his seat, trying to ignore the muffled cry of their mother in the back and the echoes of pain permeating the Force. Winter briefly came into the cockpit with a stack of blankets and towels in her hand to ask where the largest medical kit was before dashing back out.

The alarm signaling they were about to drop out of hyperspace soon began to flash.

"Two minutes," Leia said, getting in position to manage the guns.

Artoo plugged into the computer and beeped, _You can do this._

"Glad to know you have more confidence in me than I do," Luke replied.

_Your dad destroyed a Trade Federation control ship when he was younger than you, _the droid tried to point out helpfully.

Luke knew that. Obi-wan told them the story. It didn't help his nerves.

"Trust the Force," he muttered to himself. He opened himself to the energy that he'd been aware of as long as, if not longer than, he'd been aware of Leia. "Trust the Force."

"Ready?" Leia asked.

"As ready as I'm going to be," Luke replied, gripping the controls of the ship.

"It'll be just like Black Krayt and Pearl," Leia said.

That got a laugh out of Luke.

They dropped out of hyperspace.

Luke only had a few seconds to take in the scene before him. Imperial TIEs. Two types. Regular ones and the ones with the Imperial Center Fleet's special insignia, comprised of the best and brightest pilots from the top military academies. Or, as May put it when Nadia told them this, the ones who had the least problems following inhumane orders in service of the Empire. He also recognized his father's fleet of destroyers facing off against the Imperial Center Fleet, and groups of transports with ground troops attempting to get past the blockade and down to the surface of the planet.

That was all Luke could take in before he had to veer left to dodge an oncoming TIE. It wasn't after them, though. It was chasing after the transports trying to get to the surface. More TIEs zoomed passed them, but seeing as they weren't the target of the fight, they were largely ignored.

At first, anyway.

The hailing signal on the ship began to go off, and Luke chanced a glance in Leia's direction.

"Should we answer it?"

"That's exactly what I'm about to do," Leia replied.

She fired two shots at an incoming Imperial Center Fleet TIE. The next second, more TIEs were coming up behind them.

"Leia! What did you do that for?" Luke demanded. "Now we're being chased!"

"Well, we're an unmarked ship that both sides were probably assuming was the enemy. Now that Dad's side has seen me take out the Imperial Center TIEs, they'll just not shoot, and we'll only have to worry about one side chasing after us."

"Or we could have just waited for Dad to recognize Mom's ship and call off the TIEs!"

"Now, we don't have to wait."

"_Sure_. Having some of the best pilots in the galaxy chasing after us instead because you're a good shot is a good thing?" Luke asked, flying out the range of the TIEs on their tail.

"I'll worry about them. You just get us past that blockade."

"Well, that's a lot harder to do now that I have to dodge people shooting at us!"

No sooner than he said this did Luke have to veer out the way of fire coming at them from the front.

"You won't have to dodge that long if you hurry up and get us onto the planet," Leia snapped, shooting two more TIEs off their radar.

"It's not as easy as it looks from outside the flight simulators, Leia," Luke snapped. "Every time I see an opening on the radar, someone shoots at us."

Leia didn't answer that, more focused on the enemy fighters ganging up on them.

"Trust the Force," Luke muttered to himself to calm himself down. He repeated the mantra once again. "Trust the Force. Listen to it. And it will guide you. Put your fear aside and do what needs to be done."

Luke controlled his breathing the way Mama showed him and Leia when she taught them how to meditate. He inhaled and, with an exhale, offered his fear into the Force.

"Trust the Force," he repeated.

_Don't follow the radar._

Luke reached over and turned it off, ignoring Artoo's alarmed exclamations and then Leia when she realized what Artoo was saying. Luke tuned them both out. Them. The echoes of his mother's increasing pain in the Force. His father's Force presence just at the edge of his senses because he was somewhere nearby in the midst of all the chaos.

_There. Now._

Luke gunned the thrusters on the ship and zoomed forward to a narrow opening between two ships from the fleet that would just let them get by.

_Luke! Are you insane? _Leia mentally shouted at him.

Luke ignored her as he continued on while chanting his mantra, "Trust the Force. Trust the Force. Trust—"

He turned the ship sideways at the last possible moment to just squeeze through the long narrow opening between enemy ships and before they could realize that Luke hadn't crashed them to their fiery deaths.

"We're through!" Luke exclaimed.

"Oh, thank the Force!" Leia exclaimed in relief as she collapsed into the co-pilot chair, sounding very much like Threepio in that moment. Artoo shared a similar sentiment.

Luke ignored them both as he steered the ship to the discreet docking bay Mama had directed him to go while calming his racing heart.

Mama may not be fearless. But if she did stuff like that all the time, then Luke was pretty sure she was the closest to it that any sentient being could be. And maybe, one day, he would be too.

* * *

**AN: **1) Writing Luke and Leia as children in this alternate universe has been an interesting exercise. There are some things that stay the same. But inevitably, they'd be different because they're raised different than in canon. For instance, Leia has a leagues better relationship with Vader in this universe than canon, but she still grapples with all the atrocities he's committed. She has a sharp wit still and learns from a young age to keep secrets, but she's not groomed for politics this time around to keep some of her personality in check. So her tempermant is a little more obviously her father.

Luke on the other hand is not a farm boy who feels the need to prove himself amongst a bunch of people who have been fighting the Empire and training for that purpose. His family heritage hasn't been kept secret from him, he knows about his powers and they haven't been repressed, so he doesn't have this need to prove himself by seeking out reckless acts of courage and idiocy. Which means, he wasn't particularly eager to fly a ship into battle at ten. Also, he still hero-worships but in his universe, but he also grew up knowing his father wasn't the hero of this universe and doesn't want to emulate himself after Vader. So in this universe, that energy has been redirected to Ahsoka.

2) It is not a spoiler to say that the next chapter is a mildly graphic birth scene. Personally, I don't see much graphic about it since I'm not writing in detail the things that make it truly a graphic experience, but just a heads up.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, favorite, and follow please. I appreciate the support and insights.


	77. Part Nine: Chapter Seventy-Seven: Mé

**Part Nine  
****Chapter Seventy-Seven: Mé**

Ahsoka was no stranger to pain. She'd been fighting in battles and wars since she was fourteen. Physical pain came with the territory. She'd suffered through more than a few blaster burns, some more severe than others. There'd been some broken bones over the years. She'd been stabbed once. A dislocated shoulder. The general full-body soreness that accompanied a long and tiresome mission. But none of the pain she'd experienced so far, not even combined, equaled the pain of labor.

Every time her womb contracted, it felt like her stomach, back, and upper thighs were being stabbed with hot knives, the sensation lasting longer and longer as her labor progressed. And when a contraction passed, she was left feeling every ache of her body. Like she'd been hit by a kriffing cruiser. When her body began to relax in relief, another contraction wracked her body with an increasing intensity that she didn't know was possible.

She was vaguely aware that the ship dropped out of hyperspace and that Luke and Leia were going back and forth while Luke ran the blockade. But as she sat on her knees on an assortment of towels and with a blanket thrown over her that she vaguely remembered Winter placing on her, leaning forward with her head resting on her arms as she suffered through labor pains, Ahsoka couldn't bring herself to care. She was also vaguely aware that Winter was sitting on the floor in the corner of the bunk with her legs folded under her, keeping vigil.

While she had some presence of mind between contractions, Ahsoka managed to pant between shallow breaths, "You don't have to stay for this, princess."

"Mama said as a ruler of Alderaan, it's my job to look after the people of Alderaan. That's what I'm doing," Winter stated.

"I'm not… Kriff," Ahsoka said, gripping the blankets under her as another contraction wracked her body. She didn't know how long it took to pass as she focused on remembering to breathe. When it finally did pass, she managed to remember what she'd been saying before and said, "I'm not Alderaanian."

"You are to me," Winter replied with all the same fervor and stubbornness of her mother.

Ahsoka managed a weak smile before closing her eyes and focusing on controlling her breath to manage the pain. She let out a long exhale as another contraction took her, attempting to mentally detach herself to let her body do this without her worry that for all Winter's company, she was doing this by herself. Without her worry that something might go wrong that put her and the baby in danger. Without her worry that the last time she'd been in such close proximity of a woman going into labor, she'd died just minutes after. Without her worry that Vader could be confronting the Emperor without her. Without her worry that Vader wasn't here. Couldn't be here.

The last thought made her imagine Vader's reaction when he found out. He was going to be in sheer disbelief, no doubt, then awed, and then, when it dawned on him that she'd told no one and gone through labor by herself, livid. The thought caused Ahsoka to laugh a little even as another contraction hit her.

Feeling a little less tense, Ashoka wrapped the Force around her and settled into its comforting embrace. She could get through this.

"Mom," Luke and Leia said, suddenly appearing in the doorway half a dozen contractions later.

"Hey," she moaned.

"Are you… Are you okay?" Luke asked.

Ahsoka heard the sharp sound of Leia's hand colliding with Luke's arm.

"Ow! I mean… Mama knows what I mean," Luke muttered.

"Still," Leia chided.

"I'll be—" Ahsoka cut herself off as another contraction seized her. This one the longest and most painful so far. Suddenly, she was overcome with the urge to sit up at the fierce pressure between her legs. Finally, she said, "I'll be fine. Just… wait outside for a minute. You too, Winter."

"Bu—"

Winter stopped her protests as Ahsoka cried out through another contraction. By the time Ahsoka had her bearings about herself, all three children were gone, and they'd closed the door to the bunk behind them.

She sat back on her heels with her thighs spread. Another contraction seized her entire body, and she tossed her head back and gritted her teeth through the pain and the pressure in her lower pelvis. She gained enough wits about her after it was over to reach between her legs and feel the top of a head. A hairy head. Good. Not feet. Now confident that she didn't have to worry about a more complicated birth, she placed her hands on the top of her thighs. Fire burned between her legs as the next contraction began to push out the rest of the head.

Wishing for some type of comfort, anything that would ease the pain or help take her mind from it or just assure her that everything would be fine, she began to reach out for the familiar coolness where her connection to Vader lay. An instinct for as long as she could remember. When she was in pain or scared or overwhelmed or anything and didn't know what to do, she'd reach out to the one person that would at least comfort her, if not find a solution. So many times during the Clone War, she'd done it. And if she'd been able to reach him, he'd not only respond, he'd drop everything to get to her. Now, she could connect with him across star systems. He'd definitely give her the comfort of his presence from just a few levels up.

She managed to collect enough wits to stop herself. Now was not the time for selfishness, no matter how much she wished Vader could be here right now.

A few more contractions and Ahsoka felt the head come out.

She panted heavily, mentally bracing herself for the next contraction while keeping her body as relaxed as possible.

"Almost there," she panted.

The next contraction came. Ahsoka felt her body give a little involuntary push. The next moment she felt the rest of the body slip out, and then laying between her thighs on the soft towels was her baby.

The world had pretty much slowed and felt distant around her ever since she entered the painful throes of labor. But for one moment, the world disappeared as she looked down at the slimy coated being between her legs. Not crying. But eyes wide open and blinking and body squirming as it adjusted to the new world around them.

And then Ahsoka remembered where they were and what was going on and let out a relieved sigh that it was over and reached down to pick up the baby and hold it against her chest. When the baby let out small whimpers, it prompted Ahsoka into action.

"Are you cold, little one?" she asked aloud, running a warm hand back and forth over the baby's body. She summoned one of the towels Winter had left in the corner to her hands and used it to pat her dry before grabbing another to cover her.

Slowly and very gingerly, Ahsoka managed to sit all the way back on the bunk before sagging half-sitting up against the blankets bunched at the head. For a moment, she tilted her head back and closed her eyes. Then she opened her eyes and finally looked down to inspect the little body in her arms.

She was tiny for a newborn from a singleton pregnancy that seemed to take after her human father rather than her togruta mother. But togruta babies ran a little smaller than humans at first. And Luke and Leia had probably been about this small when they were born. Her eyes were blue, but Ahsoka wasn't particularly surprised by that. She would have been surprised if they were any other color. Her skin was a deep bronze, the color having filled in some in the minutes since she'd been born, but there were no visible markings that she seemed to have inherited from Ahsoka. At least not yet. The most peculiar thing about her was her pale white, wavy locks. Ahsoka was sure that coloring was from her somehow.

"Hello, little one," she said, reaching out her hand to touch the palm of the girl's hand, which had been curled up next to her face.

The child grabbed on, and Ahsoka broke out into a smile.

Bonding with Luke and Leia had been a struggle considering the circumstances of their birth and her very young age at the time. She'd gotten there with them after a couple of weeks when she'd begun to accept that they were her new life whether she'd been prepared for it or not. This was different. All her reservations and worries about this baby aside, the bonding this time was instinctual. It helped that she'd become accustomed to her presence in the Force over the long months of carrying her.

It occurred to Ahsoka that many levels up, there was a battle and/or siege happening. Something that the Force told her she had to be a part of. And it was because she had to be part of it that was the reason her vision had ended in death. But did it really have to?

She didn't have to go. And no one would blame her if she didn't. Not after just giving birth. Not when she had children that depended on her. Not when Vader would undoubtedly be devastated. But the Force was telling her she had to go. She had to help Vader this one last time.

Because the last time he faced the prospect of killing Palpatine or sentencing the galaxy to darkness, he'd chosen the latter. And for a long time, she'd blamed him for it. But now, looking down at her daughter, as she contemplated disregarding the Force entirely, consequences be damned, she understood. Besides, it had been unfair to expect Vader not to break under the weight of that choice when he was making it on his own. When Palpatine had cornered him. Ahsoka was not going to let that happen again. The consequences would be worse than just her death.

Vader would learn to live without her.

Her children would learn to live without her.

None of them would be without anyone to turn to. Sabé and Diya and Rex and Obi-wan and everyone else who she'd eventually trusted with these secrets over the decade would look after them. And as long as the children were fine, Vader would be okay. He'd watch over them and teach them and fight the entire galaxy to keep them safe if he needed to. And when they didn't want him to, he still would. And when they didn't need him to, Vader would still be okay.

She hoped. She had to believe that. Otherwise, she just might stay here and possibly doom the galaxy again.

"You'll be okay," Ahsoka muttered and kissed the forehead of her newborn. "You'll be okay."

But she got this moment. Which was more than she could say for Padmé. Padmé hadn't even been able to hold the twins. Ahsoka got this.

She banished all dreary thoughts from her head as the baby began to root around her chest. With some difficulty, Ahsoka helped her latch onto her breast.

As she ate and Ahsoka stroked a finger across the soft skin of her face, Ahsoka realized that she didn't have a name to give the girl. Nor had she thought about it because the best way to hide her pregnancy and not give herself away was to not think about it. Besides, it had seemed so far off. She hadn't needed one yet.

It didn't take her much thought to figure it out.

"Mé," she said.

After two women. Padmé, without whom she wouldn't even have this child, and May, the first person she decided to trust again when everyone had betrayed her. And next, for the woman that had bravely taken her and the twins under her protection without thought to the consequences and paid for it.

"Mé Breha…" Ahsoka trailed off, hesitating at the last name.

It should be a no brainer. On Shili, her people wore the name of the mothers that bore them. Ahsoka learned on Tatooine that a child took the name of the one who was freeborn, forsaking the name associated with slavery. But Ahsoka didn't want Mé being haunted by the expectations of having to live up to her ghost. Besides, regardless of what Vader thought, his name—the one she'd first known him by—was a good one. A fitting one. And it was going to mean a lot more than just the name of a Jedi turned Sith who was born into slavery. Ahsoka was sure of that.

"Skywalker," she finally said. "Mé Breha Skywalker."

By then, Mé had fallen asleep, and her mouth had fallen off Ahsoka's breast. Satisfied that the girl was at peace, Ahsoka kissed her once more before forcing herself to sit up. In the hour or so she'd been resting, her body had naturally delivered the afterbirth, which made it easy for Ahsoka to maneuver off the bed and lay Mé down on the blankets. She grabbed the medical kit that Winter had brought into the room earlier and used the scissors inside to cut the cord after she'd tied it off with string. Then she reached into a draw where she'd stashed baby supplies long ago in anticipation of being on the run with a newborn (never giving birth) and put her in a diaper and wrapped her in a blanket.

Ahsoka ignored the ache in her legs as she wrapped her nude body in a blanket, balled up the afterbirth in the rest of the soiled towels and blankets, and called Luke, Leia, and Winter to the bunk.

They clamored to the door and paused in the doorway without saying anything. Recognizing that they were asking permission, Ahsoka gestured them over. They crowded into the room around the bunk.

"She's tiny," Luke pointed out.

"You all were that small, too," Ahsoka replied.

Leia gave her a skeptical look but didn't argue.

"What's her name?" Winter asked.

"Mé Breha Skywalker."

Leia nodded her head approvingly. "That's pretty."

Ahsoka ran a hand over Mé's soft hair once before saying, "I need you all to watch her for a minute. I'll be right back."

The children all nodded, and Ahsoka slipped out the room to clean herself up, taking the balled up towels and blankets with her to discard. She used the small fresher to clean herself of the fine sheen of sweat that had dried on her skin and gingerly wipe at the sorest parts of her body. Then she went to the other bunk to dress in the battle wear she always kept on board the ship. The only thing she added to it this time was a wrap to support her weakened core and hide what remained of the belly bump she had before.

Once she was dressed, she sat down on the bed and took a moment to catch her breath. Just that simple task had been exhausting. When she finally caught her breath, she went to the communal kitchen area and took out the formula and bottles she'd stashed months ago and prepared enough bottles to get Mé through the next day or so. When she was done with that, she finally grabbed the stim-shot that she'd retrieved from the med-kit earlier and injected it into her thigh. It was enough to keep her going for one more rotation. The Force told her that was all she was going to need.

The children were dutifully watching over Mé when she got back to the bunk with a spare blaster in her hand. Mé was still blissfully slumbering, oblivious to the chaos and turmoil happening around her. Ahsoka temporarily set the blaster aside. Then, despite her better judgment—because Force knew Ahsoka didn't know if she'd be able to put her down again—she picked up the newborn and held her close.

After a while, she said, "Come. Sit here, Luke."

Once Luke was seated next to Ahsoka, she adjusted Mé to transfer her into her brother's arms. Surprise shot across the bond Ahsoka had with her son, but he instinctively moved his arms to hold his new sibling.

"Always support her head. She can't hold it up herself yet," Ahsoka instructed as she adjusted Luke's hold.

Satisfied that Luke had a good hold on her, Ahsoka retrieved her lightsabers and comm out the pants she'd discarded hours again when her labor had begun in earnest. She clipped the lightsabers to her belt, set the comm on the small stand next to the bunk, and picked back up the blaster.

"I need you all to listen and listen to me carefully," she said in a grave tone. "I have to go help Vader, and I'm going to have to leave you here to do it. Luke, your job is to stay with Mé. Winter, there are bottles in the chiller in the commune. Warm it up for thirty seconds and help Luke feed her every two and a half hours. You have to pat her back or rub her belly until she burps afterward. Got it?"

Winter nodded vigorously and said, "I helped my aunt take care of my cousin when she was born when she came to the palace once. She showed me how to change the diaper too. I remember it all."

"Good." Ahsoka held out the blaster to Leia and said, "If anyone that's not your father or me tries to access this ship, shoot them. Hell, even if you think it's your father or me, shoot. We'll just block the bolt." Because changelings and shapeshifters were a thing.

Leia took the blaster and nodded.

"I'll pay the docking manager to refuel the ship. He won't know you're on it, though. If things go wrong, Luke, you're going to have to get off-planet. Go to Tatooine. Artoo will give you the exact coordinates. Tell them your father is Ekkreth, your mother is Fulcrum, and then tell them your names. Use Skywalker. They'll take care of you."

"How will we know if things go wrong?" Leia asked.

"You'll know. You'll feel it in the Force. You won't be able to miss it," Ahsoka said. She'd felt the shift just over a decade ago. That moment when everything changed, and she looked out the window in Padmé's apartment to see the Jedi Temple on fire.

"Mama," Luke said quietly.

"Yes?"

Luke didn't answer. Instead, he looked down at Mé.

"Luke, if you don't understand something, I need you to ask it now."

"It's not that. It's…" Luke trailed off and then looked back up at Ahsoka. "Mama, you're coming back. Right?"

For a moment, Ahsoka was taken aback by the blunt question. The next moment, she let out a slow breath and blinked to hold back the tears fighting their way to the surface. Now was no time for tears. Not if she wanted to keep the children calm.

Rather than answer, she kissed each child on the forehead.

"I love you all. And remember," she began, only for Winter to cut her off.

"The Force is with us," the platinum-haired girl said.

"Trust it. Listen to it," Leia continued.

"And it will guide us," Luke added.

Ahsoka swallowed and managed to choke out in a whisper, "Always."

Ahsoka turned to leave the ship, forcing herself not to look back as she lowered the ramp and made her way down.

There was nothing left to be said to her children.

But there was one more thing left to do for them.

End the war. Kill Palpatine.

* * *

**AN: **1) So this story is starting to come full circle. Seventy chapters ago, Ahsoka would have never left the room for ten seconds and trusted Vader to watch the twins, and here she is now trusting that Vader will look after them if she's not there.

2) Mé was born! And for those who read Force Distortion and knew her name, now you know the reasoning behind it.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, follow, and favorite, please. I appreciate the support.


	78. Poignant

**Chapter Seventy-Eight: Poignant**

Vader had considered dozens of scenarios that might have helped him avoid a direct confrontation with the Imperial Center forces on his way to Palpatine. But all those ways, both subtle and overt, gave power to Palpatine. In particular, Vader just considered surrendering to the Imperial Center Forces and allowing them to take him directly to Palpatine. But surrendering to the Imperial Center Forces meant surrendering to the Imperial Royal Guard, who were trained and prepared to deal with powerful Force users like Vader. And though Vader had some evidence that typical Force user restraints didn't restrain him the way they were intended, it was not a hypothesis he wanted to test dealing with Palpatine.

So even though he had no advantage, even though he might end up overwhelmed and out of his depth when Palpatine's reinforcements came, Vader went with a direct confrontation that made his intentions clear. Besides, he only needed to get past all the Forces and get to Palpatine. If he could get to Palpatine, if he could kill him, this would all be over, and it wouldn't matter what reinforcements came. Most of the powers left would bow to him, and the remaining would be easily subdued.

They engaged with the Imperial Center Fleet only minutes after they dropped out of hyperspace. In the midst of that, Vader managed to lead troops past the massive vessels and to the ground to lay siege to the Palace, only to run into a transparent domed shield that covered the perimeter of the Palace grounds with Imperial center troopers lining it.

"Seems like they're trying to win by attrition," Commander Dare observed.

"So it seems," Vader agreed.

Without a lot of planning beforehand, there was no telling how long he would be able to sustain a siege of the Palace, especially when Imperial reinforcements arrived for the Emperor. Vader had sent out a hailing to his own allies, but they would get here long after their opponents did. Thus, they had a short time window for getting into the Palace.

Aware of an expected presence on the edge of his senses, Vader turned to see a group of clones escorting Ahsoka directly to him.

When she was standing before him, Vader said resignedly, "I was made aware that your ship was seen running the blockade a couple of hours ago. What took you so long?"

Ahsoka shrugged. "You know. Haven't been here in over a decade. Got lost. Had to ask for directions."

Vader pretended not to notice the coughs and snickers of a few of the men around them. Instead, he gave Ahsoka a once over, both physically and in the Force. Something was… off wasn't the right word, but something was definitely different.

"What?" Ahsoka asked.

"You're… different," Vader settled on.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes and waved a dismissive hand. "You just haven't seen me in eight months."

It was an obvious deflection. One that Vader had learned over the years of political intrigue in Palpatine's court and military not to fall for. Just because he hadn't seen her in eight months didn't mean that she wasn't different, regardless of whether or not he could put his finger on why.

Before he could point that out, she asked, "So how are we getting our forces past this shield?"

Some instinct that wasn't necessarily the Force told him to press her deflection. That this was related to whatever she'd promised to tell him about the next time they saw each other. But now wasn't the time. She was right. They needed to get through this shield.

"We're not sure yet."

"How many levels does it go down? It has to end somewhere."

"Too far. And it's way too obvious."

"I think I might have an idea," Vader admitted. "I'm not sure it'll work."

"When have we ever been certain that any of your plans are going to work?" Ahsoka asked as she walked past him to the very edge of the perimeter they'd set up in front of Palace and before the shield.

Vader followed her. "It's a new Force power. That's why."

"Oh?" Ahsoka asked, turning to Vader and raising an eye marking.

"I've only used it once. To get out a tractor beam. I'm not sure of its limitations yet."

"So… you're like a walking field disrupter? When you want to be?"

"That's one way to put it," Vader replied mildly. "But it won't shut down the shield, and it certainly won't get everyone in."

"Everyone doesn't need to get in." Ahsoka turned back to the shield, looking to the Palace looming in the near distance. "Just us."

"And confront Palpatine while he has the advantage of all his personal forces on the inside able to give him backup?"

"Not to confront him. Not yet. You find where that shield is generating from, deactivate it so our Forces can lay siege to the Palace. Then we confront Palpatine while his forces are preoccupied with the chaos."

"You can't believe it'll be that simple."

"No," Ahsoka admitted. "But I figure it's best to stay simple and make the rest up as we go along so we can be flexible. Now the question is, how are we going to get through and where?"

Vader already had that part of the plan figured out. He informed his commander to hold the perimeter as he guided Ahsoka back through his men and to another part of the shield that kept Vader's forces from breaking through. Unlike back where his forces were gathered near the main entrance, the side of the dome he took her to had no men around it merely because it wasn't an entrance. Or at least, it didn't appear to be one.

"I know this," Ahsoka said, looking at the enormous column that used to be a large statue of an old temple guard. One of many that used to surround the Imperial Palace back when it was the Jedi Temple. "I used to sneak out the temple using this exit. Does Sidious know about this entrance?"

"Perhaps. I didn't tell him, but one of the old temple guards is the grand inquisitor. Even so, it's clear Sidious didn't notify the Imperial Center Guard of it."

"So? How does this new Force power work?"

"I really don't know," Vade said as he set a hand on the field. "I just do it."

He expanded the Force outward to form the disruptive energy that interfered with the mechanisms of Force inhibiting cuffs and helped him escape a tractor beam. The shield in front of them visibly faltered, the electric current that formed it underneath becoming temporarily visible. Vader expanded more. The shield faltered again, and this time, his hand went through it.

He reached a hand back to grab one of Ahsoka's hands and pulled her close to him. Then he expanded the disruptive Force energy around them both and walked unnoticed through the shield, without tripping any alarms that would signal a breach.

"Wow," Ahsoka said. She looked back at the shield. "That's a neat trick. I can think of dozens of times we could have used that during the Clone War."

"Would have certainly come in handy," Vader agreed as they made their way to the secret entrance behind the column. It was a tight fit with the suit's bulk, but Vader managed to squeeze through the small passage that led into one of the public halls of the Imperial Palace. Still, it was with great relief that he stepped out into the public hall, and not for the first time and certainly never the last, he cursed the impracticability of the suit.

Ahsoka squeezed out behind him. Vader thought she would have had an easier time than he had, but she stopped to brace a hand against the wall and hold onto her lower abdomen.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," Ahsoka said dismissively as she dropped her arms back to her side. "I'm just not a tiny as I used to be when I used these passages. Wasn't very comfortable."

She was lying. Vader couldn't determine that with the Force as shielded as she was keeping herself from him, but he could still tell. Something wasn't right.

"Did you get hurt while fleeing the Rebellion?"

"No." Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "Stop worrying so much. I'm fine. Now, where's that shield generating from?"

Vader gave her another once over. There was nothing visibly wrong with her even though something was off that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He'd just have to keep an eye on her. Like he always had to make sure she didn't do anything insane. Eventually, she wouldn't be able to keep hiding whatever was going on.

"To cover the perimeter of the entire palace ground? Probably from one of the top spires," Vader finally answered.

"There are five spires. We can't check them all."

"You're right. But I have a hunch I know exactly which spire the shield is generating from. Unfortunately, that's also where the Emperor's throne room is."

"The middle spire? Where the High Council room used to be?"

"Exactly the place," Vader replied.

"Well," Ahsoka said with a shrug as she started her way down the hall. "At least that means I know my way around and won't get lost if we're separated."

Vader followed, making sure to keep her just within his grasp as they made their way through the palace halls with the familiarity of someone that frequented them on a daily basis. It was hard to avoid thinking that they _had_ frequented them on a daily basis at one point. Lived in these very halls. Walked side by side to the very middle spire they were headed to now. Before he'd helped burn it all to the ground…

Vader pushed the thought out his head, wrapping himself in the comforting embrace of the dark side.

"Force, I hate this place," Ahsoka suddenly said. When he didn't answer, she continued, "He didn't even try to disguise what this place used to be."

No. The Emperor hadn't. Despite the renovations to get rid of blaster fire in the walls; despite the gutting of its sacred artifacts; despite the elaborate and costly décor that the Jedi would have balked at. Despite all that, the Emperor hadn't made many changes to the general structure and layout of the old Jedi Temple. That had been the point, though. If killing the Jedi in their own home hadn't been enough, remaking it into the epicenter of his Sith Empire had been the ultimate desecration.

"How can you stand being here? This used to be our—we used to live here."

Home, was what she had been about to say. However, by the time they'd both left it behind, it hadn't been much of a home anymore. Maybe it had been home for her at one point. But she'd detached herself from it so much that by the time it had fallen, she didn't even sense the Force screaming at its desecration. And he'd been the one destroying it, which he supposed just went to show how much he'd ever considered it home.

Still…

"I don't stand it. I stay away from the core as much as possible. When I do come, I try to avoid the Palace."

"I can hear their ghosts screaming. I can smell the blaster fire and feel the fear and death," she admitted. "The Force is restless here. No wonder Sidious remade it into his Palace."

He'd forgotten she might be far more sensitive to the atmosphere. But this was even more sensitive than he knew her powers to be.

"I wasn't aware your powers of empathy had developed so."

"Neither was I. But my powers have been a little more sensitive lately. It's settling back down, but the residual of it is still there."

Vader stopped in the middle of the hall and looked at her.

"The residual of what?"

"Nothing," was her quick reply.

"Ahsoka."

"It's nothing for you to be worried about right now. You'll find out later."

She wasn't going to be persuaded. That much was clear. So Vader put together the pieces he had. She wanted to tell him something days ago but told him she'd wait until they were face-to-face. Now they were face-to-face, and immediately he'd noticed something off about her physically, first… her gait. Her gait was off. She wasn't limping, but her gait was different from what he was familiar with. Then when they'd made their way through the secret crevice entrance into the Palace, she'd been holding herself like she'd been wounded.

Now, for some reason, she was more sensitive to the Force, the residual effects of something she wasn't telling him. Many things could affect a person's Force sensitivity, but nothing that Vader knew of that would explain the other things off about her. He was missing something vital. Something that would make this all make sense.

She suddenly said his name and grabbed his arm to gain his attention.

"I need you to focus. This is exactly why I didn't tell you. You can't be distracted. You can't give Sidious anything to use against you. If you're worried about me, he'll sense it. I promise you'll have plenty of time to worry after all this is said and done. Okay?"

Right. Sidious. Vader wasn't sure just how much Sidious knew about the extent of his relationship with Ahsoka currently. That didn't mean he should inadvertently give anything away. Whether or not whatever Ahsoka was hiding should wait, it was going to have to. Right now, Sidious was the bigger threat.

"As soon as this is over, you tell me," Vader demanded.

"Promise," Ahsoka said cheekily, flashing one of her canines at him.

They pressed forward, and a bad feeling began to creep onto Vader.

"This isn't right. No one's here," Vader said.

"I was going to ask you if it was always this still and quiet."

Vader wasn't present for court often. But he'd been present enough to know that this time of day would have been buzzing with politicians, ambassadors, and delegates going about the business they had at the place. There wasn't even a trace of the servants. He knew they tried to keep themselves invisible and away from notice, but not even they were this still and quiet.

"He's waiting for you," Ahsoka stated.

"He is," Vader replied as they reached the lift that would take them to the top of the middle spire. "I'll go up first. You follow after me."

"I'm not letting you go up there on your own," Ahsoka declared.

"You're not." Ahsoka gave him a wry look. "You're not. But you may be the only element of surprise we have. I'll distract the Emperor. You come up behind me, find the generator, and turn it off. Then you can help me with Sidious."

"Why don't I distract Sidious and you turn off the generator? You're the technopath. It'll be faster for you."

Vader scoffed. "You know exactly why you're not going to face Sidious alone." He paused. "A technopath."

"Yeah. You know—"

"I know what a technopath is. What gave you the idea that I'm one?"

Ahsoka gave him the look she reserved for use only when she wasn't sure if he was messing with her.

"I used to wonder with how good you are with mechanics. How you're almost more comfortable with machines and inorganic beings than you are organic ones. But it's pretty obvious now," she explained. When he didn't reply, she sighed and put a hand on her hip. "You can use the Force over comm, you can fix a machine without being familiar with its parts, you've been flying something almost since you could walk. That little trick with the shield? You're clearly on the spectrum of technopath. And you passed it down to Luke. I mean, you taught Luke and Leia mechanics, but Luke's affinity for technology is uncanny. He corrects his instructors."

"That doesn't—I grew up in a junk shop."

"Oh, come on. You really mean to tell me you hadn't figured that out yet? I figured that out years ago."

"I have many powers in the Force, Ahsoka. But that is beside the point," Vader said, getting them back on track. "You don't need to be a technopath to turn off the generator. It'll be a button or a switch. If not, just slash your lightsaber through it. Whatever you do, I'm going to talk to the Emperor while you do it. That way, we can be sure that we won't be overwhelmed by his forces. The Royal Guard are going to be cumbersome enough to deal with."

"Fine," Ahsoka said petulantly, crossing her arms in apparent displeasure with the plan.

He gave her the code to the lift as they waited for one of the two lifts to come down and take him up. In the meantime, he tried not to worry. But it was Palpatine. To not be worried was to underestimate his master, and to underestimate his master was a fatal mistake to make.

Ahsoka's hand slipped into his as they waited, her own worry seeping across their bond.

Finally, because he'd be remiss if he didn't, Vader warned, "Sidious is a master of mind games. You can know the truth, you can know he's lying, you can know he's trying to trick you, and he can still manipulate you into doing and believing exactly what he wants. He has a way of getting into your head and making you question everything you thought you ever knew."

"It's a good thing we know each other then. Right?" Ahsoka squeezed his hand.

Vader squeezed back.

"And what if he resorts to physical violence?" Ahsoka asked.

"That's a good thing. It means he couldn't manipulate you. But then it means we have to fight him."

The lift finally arrived. Vader released Ahsoka's hand and entered. He turned to face Ahsoka one last time before the doors closed.

It was upon entering the throne room that Vader realized he'd made a grave error. Not about the location of the shield generator. He heard and felt it humming in the Force from around them.

His error was thinking that Palpatine would be here waiting for him. That Palpatine wouldn't rely on the tried and true tactic of wearing his enemies down with needless distractions and conflicts. Then, by the time they made it to his master, they were tired, weary, more likely to make a mistake, more open to manipulations by his mind games.

He lit his lightsaber before the Force even notified him that he was being surrounded. Not by the Red Guard. But by Palpatine's inquisitors and other dark side adepts. Vader wasn't sure whether he was supposed to be insulted or flattered, given that the Royal Guard was more specially equipped and trained to deal with Force-sensitives than most trained Force-sensitives were.

Still, fighting other Force users was always tricky business given how creative they could sometimes be and the unexpected talents they could have. Then there was the fact that if Palpatine wasn't here, he was elsewhere. That elsewhere being where Ahsoka was.

How could he have been so stupid?

"Lord Vader. Master Sidious told us to expect your arrival," the Grand Inquisitor said.

Vader had no time for the petty mind games and back and forth that was common between him and his "rivals."

"Inquisitors," Vader greeted, doing an experimental swipe with his red blade before attacking.

The group of them, about a dozen of the highest ranking inquisitors and dark side Force users in Sidious' employ, were prepared for his attack given his reputation. But their preparation meant nothing compared to his might. Even so, as he blocked, deflected, decapitated, incapacitated, and pierced his opponents, he lamented that he hadn't let Ahsoka and her task force kill more dark side users over the years. In many ways, hindering her had been necessary to keeping Sidious' attention away from her. In other ways, hindering her had been nothing more than his own petty pride, a refusal to relinquish any control, and to remind Ahsoka that he was superior to her despite their "equal partnership."

But regretting his youthful arrogance would be of no help. A lesson learned and better to not dwell on. Especially when Vader noticed, once he was down to his last four opponents, that it seemed the remaining dark side users had been trained more extensively than Vader had trained them to be. Dueling with Ahsoka was that way. Him teaching her one thing and then somehow her learning a dozen things from that one lesson instead. But the inquisitors and adepts weren't nearly that competent or gifted. It only meant that Sidious had done more preparation in anticipation of replacing him than Vader had been aware of over the years.

That just made the fight all the more tedious, and it was with annoyed relief that Vader finally got down the grand inquisitor. Once a temple guard of this very building. Who had been one of those to help expel Ahsoka from these very halls, unaware that the teen they'd been persecuting would grow up to be greater than everyone who had judged her.

In a last desperate attempt, the inquisitor attempted to strike him in the face. But it was too late that Vader realized that it hadn't been meant to be a killing blow, but a debilitating one. The right lens of the mask went dark, and then all the upper right side of the mask fell away along with part of the bottom. Circuitry in the mask that helped to support the pacemaker now compromised, it instantly became more uncomfortable to breathe in the suit than it would have been to breathe without it.

However, it was clear the inquisitor hadn't expected Vader to shake off his suit's compromising because he hesitated. Vader used the hesitation to disarm him of his blade and slice him in half through the torso.

It hadn't escaped him that in the time it took him to dispatch his opponents, Ahsoka hadn't made her way up. He was tempted to immediately make his way back down, but they would need the help of his troops to keep Sidious from overwhelming them. Instead, when he left the throne room, he went to one of the holding areas where the hum of the shield generator was strongest. Sure enough, he found the machine, or at the very least the large computers that controlled it. He tapped a few buttons, considering the merits of turning it off and leaving the machine mostly intact. But that would give Sidious the chance to reactivate it yet again. Thus, Vader reached out into the Force, feeling the generator's circuitry and inner workings as though he were holding it in his hands. Then, he destroyed the delicate circuitry and used the Force to crush the physical computers for good measure.

The hum of the generator stopped.

Vader, at best, could only hope that solved the problem of his forces not being able to get through to lay complete siege to the Palace. But he had no time to check further. Sidious was elsewhere in the Palace. And though he trusted Ahsoka with just about everything, he didn't at all trust that she had enough self-preservation to run in the opposite direction if she came across his master.

* * *

**AN: **One of the new things that I love that was introduced to canon was that the Sidious made the Jedi Temple into his palace. It's fitting and left so much for me to work with in writing. I could have honestly written this entire chapter from Ahsoka's point of view, but it needed to be a Vader chapter.

ETA: Also, the technopath thing with Vader was something I came up with on a whim because I've never seen it used before. Mind you, not like a magic technopath. He still has to practice stuff to develop the skill. And he could surely practice his mechanics without the Force and still be incredibly skilled. But like... somewhere on the sliding scale. Like on a 1 to 10, he's probably 2 or 3. Just thought it was something interesting.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, follow, and favorite please. I appreciate it!


	79. Desperate

**Chapter Seventy-Nine: Desperate**

It was with some relief to Ahsoka that the lift closed, taking Vader up to the top of the middle spire. She allowed her posture to sag some and rubbed a soothing hand over the lingering soreness that the stem shot hadn't been able to quell. It was easy to forget how observant Vader could be when she hadn't had much to hide from him before. Now that she did, it seemed like he was picking up on every little thing out of the norm that she did.

She straightened her posture again, the soreness still not totally soothed, but a little better than before. Then, figuring she'd waited long enough, she started to press the button to bring one of the lifts down again, only to pause.

Ever since she'd stepped onto Imperial Center for the first time in over a decade, she'd felt the encroaching darkness that permeated the Force, stemming from the epicenter of the planet—Palpatine's Imperial Palace. Once she'd entered the Palace, the feeling of rot and restlessness in the Force almost overwhelmed her. Tainted with the culminating stench of death that had resulted from Palpatine building his residence, the symbol of his tyranny, atop the spoil of his unjust conquest of the galaxy. Though the rot had been present like a looming overcast since she entered the Palace, now it felt like a shadow. A dark beast eagerly wanting and waiting to consume her.

Of course.

"Emperor Palpatine," she said, her hand still on the lift button.

"General Tano," he said, tone sounding like a well-meaning older mentor's might. But even that couldn't disguise the hollow emptiness and underlying threat of a heartless and soulless being.

Ahsoka dropped her hand to her side and turned to face the old Sith. She'd been familiarized with pictures of the Emperor over the last decade, but it was much worse up close. Unnaturally wrinkled skin, sunken yellow eyes, and rotted teeth.

"I've been looking forward to your promised visit so we can have our _discussion_," he said.

Ahsoka carefully focused on her breathing as she looked at him, unable to stop the spike of fear at facing the man who had caused so much havoc in the galaxy. This was the person that even put a healthy amount of trepidation in Vader.

She set her fear aside, behind mental shields that she'd continuously reinforced over the years in preparation for this inevitable confrontation. Sidious would try to get into her head. He couldn't get into her head if she didn't give him anything to latch onto. As she did this, she noticed the three members of the Royal Guard around him. Distinguished by their red garb, they were some of the most elite soldiers in the Empire and were tasked with protecting the Emperor. They were also a lot more equipped to deal with a Force user than most. She was painfully outnumbered and, likely, outclassed in a fight right now. Not just because of the Emperor's skill and whatever tricks the Royal Guard may have up their sleeve, but also because she wasn't in her peak fighting condition.

But it seemed like the Emperor didn't want to fight. Not yet. So she relaxed and decided to do what she always advised Luke and Leia to do. Trust the Force.

"Well, I know you were looking forward to it, and I didn't want to break my promise. So here I am. I hope you don't mind that I turned down the transport you sent by Admiral Thrawn."

"Of course not, my dear. I'm just glad you were able to get here safely. Come. Why don't we have this conversation in my garden? It's such a beautiful day out, and it would be a shame not to enjoy it," the Emperor said.

Ahsoka hesitated. The Force gave her direction.

_Walk with him._

Ahsoka made her way to Sidious, ever aware of the Royal Guards' eyes on her as she did so. But if this was a trap to catch her off guard, it was a bad one considering they could have caught her earlier when she was waiting for the lift.

"You, know, General, I do regret that we didn't get a chance to get more acquainted before all this," he said.

"You mean before you gave the order to kill me and all the other Jedi?" Ahsoka asked casually.

If Sidious was bothered by her accusation, he didn't show it. In fact, he smiled some and said, "A missed opportunity."

Whether he meant that he missed the opportunity to become acquainted with her before his order or whether he missed the opportunity to kill her with his order, Ahsoka wasn't sure. Ahsoka decided to go with the former.

"Well, you know. What would the head of state have wanted with a lowly Jedi padawan when he had more significant people to talk to? More significant matters to handle than giving an insignificant Jedi padawan his ear?"

Nothing was the answer. A Sith Lord masquerading as a Chancellor had nothing to gain from taking time out his day to speak to a Jedi padawan when she wasn't the one he wanted to groom to be his future apprentice.

Something in Sidious faltered just slightly. So quick Ahsoka might have missed it if she still weren't fairly sensitive to the nuances of the Force. She'd struck a nerve. Ahsoka didn't exactly know why.

"It's a mistake I don't plan to make again. Hence why I've been anticipating our meeting."

He said nothing else, and neither did she as they continued on to their destination. A bystander would even mistake them for pleasant companions. So focused Ahsoka was on not letting her guard down, keeping ever aware of Sidious and where the Royal Guard were in proximity to her, that she failed to notice where Sidious' garden was until they arrived. The old Room of a Thousand Fountains. It was heavily renovated, gutted of anything that would have indicated or pointed to obvious Jedi architecture—which essentially meant everything. And though it was beautiful at first glance, it too reminded Ahsoka that Sidious had earned all of this with senseless death and bloodshed. A grand sacred tree, stolen from the wookiees. Rare flowers from Ryloth. And certainly a recent addition, the sacred queen's flower from Alderaan that only grew at a specific peak on Aldera mountain and was used solely in the coronation of a new Alderaan queen. There was no telling how many other things had been stolen to satisfy Sidious' whims.

"You know," Sidious said as they walked through the garden. "You and I aren't so different, General."

"Oh?" Ahsoka asked, stopping to play with the petal of a blooming bush of red flowers.

"Unassuming. Often overlooked. Not seen as anyone worth looking at twice or that significant in the grand scheme of destiny. Yet, ambitious enough to use such a thing to our advantage to garner power and prestige."

Ahsoka got the feeling that Sidious both respected and hated her for the traits he thought made her like him. They were traits he'd used to rise to power, traits that even those who noticed what he was doing hadn't understood the ramifications of until it was much too late. Traits that she'd used to slip under his radar and build a force to oppose him.

Sidious continued, "Cunning enough to use our enemies toward the advent of our rise to power."

"I actually think that's where you and I differ," Ahsoka replied carefully. "I haven't used anyone. Certainly not my enemies."

"You don't consider Lord Vader an enemy?"

Because that was the crux of Ahsoka's conflict with the Emperor. Sure there was who was going to control the galaxy and whether good or evil would eventually reign. But the real fight was where Vader's loyalties lay. Loyalties they both knew could be fickle. Certainly not who his loyalties lay with. Vader's greatest strength was that he was loyal to those he cared for. But it was also his greatest weakness. Because that meant what side of a conflict he chose depended on who or what could best serve that interest. Never mind what side was right or wrong. It was the way she'd gotten him to listen when he first found her all those years ago. He'd had no choice but to when she was holding his thought-dead children in her lap, and they were calling her Mama.

So maybe Sidious' assessment had been fair. But the difference between him and her was that she never intended to eliminate Vader in the end like Sidious had the Jedi and the Republic. Even when she'd hated Vader most, that had never been her plan.

Still, Ahsoka wasn't exactly sure what Sidious was getting at. How much he already knew. What she might be telling him by answering.

"Don't you?" she finally asked.

Sidious smiled.

"No. Even despite his betrayal. In fact, while I was disappointed that Lord Vader wasn't forthcoming about the depths of his relationship with you, I've come to see it as a great boon. One we could both benefit from."

"Benefit?"

"I've watched you over the past year," Sidious revealed. "Listened to many audio clips, received hundreds of reports. And what I realized was that I saw much of myself in you, and I wondered just what I could do with someone like you assisting me."

"Is this a proposition to take Vader's place as your apprentice? Because if it is, he already tried to turn me to the dark side. Didn't work," Ahsoka said, stating the obvious and still unsure what game Sidious was playing. A probe to the Force also gave her no answer.

"To take Vader's place? No. You, my dear, have the potential to be much more valuable to me than just a beast on a leash."

"Is that what all Sith masters have considered their apprentices?"

"No. But I think we both can agree that it's what my apprentice is most suited for. He lacks a certain… finesse for the subtleties of ruling this Empire."

Ahsoka wasn't going to get into a debate with the man about that. She got the feeling… Ahsoka wasn't exactly sure what feeling she was getting. But what she did know was that there was nothing Sidious could offer her that she would buy into. He ultimately didn't want her anyway. Probably not even Vader anymore. What he wanted was the two impressionable children, ripe for grooming to the dark side.

"For someone who spent a decade grooming him into your apprentice, you underestimate Vader. You spent all that time getting to know his every whim, want, and tick only for him to learn to pretend to be exactly what you thought you had made him into while he bid his time. You wanted a slave to your whims. And a slave is what you got. A slave boy from Tatooine."

For a long time, Ahsoka carried an apprehension that Vader wouldn't be able to continue acting the part Sidious expected from him while helping her and having even the limited relationship he got to have with the twins. Apprehension was, frankly, putting it lightly. She'd been terrified, waking up from nightmares utterly convinced that Vader would inadvertently reveal everything to Palpatine and all hope would be lost. She'd created multiple plans for having to flee to the outer edges of the galaxy. Even, at one point, finding some place in the Unknown Regions to hide in the worst-case scenario. But during her short time on Tatooine, Ahsoka realized that her fears, while valid, were somewhat unfounded. Vader might deny that the people of Tatooine, the former slave inhabitants, in particular, were his people. But he maneuvered around and manipulated Sidious in the same way the trickster god in their stories maneuvered and manipulated slavers. The same way, Ahsoka had realized, that he maneuvered around and manipulated the Jedi Council when he had the incentive.

"Vader knows how to play that part well. So well, that he was able to hide me from you until now."

Ahsoka stopped walking and turned to Sidious.

"And that's why you're so unsettled, right? Vader acting like this was something you didn't account for," Ahsoka said. The Force told her there was more to it. She prodded, and it gave her the answer. "No. You're not just unsettled. You're desperate because you're not sure what to expect from me. You wrote me off as a non-threat, as someone who had no significant influence over your prize. So you didn't keep me close like you did everyone else who might compete with your influence. You didn't think it worth the effort to turn us against each other. To put me in a position to actually betray him. And you turned out to be wrong. You knew Vader would try to betray you one day. It's the way of the Sith, after all. But there was no way for you to see that I would be part of it. You don't have a frame of reference for who I am or what makes me tick."

Vader had told her on a few occasions that Sidious was no omniscient or omnipotent force. He could see the future, but they weren't true Force visions of the future. Sidious' visions highly depended on the things that the Sith Master already knew and understood about people. He used the things he knew about people to shift through the endless possibilities, slow down the future's motion, and pick out the most plausible futures. Then he got rid of all the possible obstacles in his way until only a few choices remained and made him appear to be omniscient or omnipotent. Ahsoka hadn't been totally convinced, always wondering whether Vader was sure of that or just trying to convince himself even if his words rang true in the Force. But now, Ahsoka was sure. She was a blind spot in Sidious' abilities, which was why he seemed so desperate. Why he was trying so hard to probe her and get something out of her. Something to make the Force give way to a possible future that he could subvert or manipulate to his benefit.

"You don't know what to do with me to get the outcome that you want," Ahsoka said.

_More than that._

"No… You don't know what to do with me to change the outcome that you've seen. You were shown the outcome. You didn't like it," Ahsoka realized. The Force had given Sidious the same vision of the end that it had given her. But whereas she'd seen their victory, he'd seen his defeat.

Not that he would admit that to her.

He didn't answer her. He simply looked up, through the transparent glass looking out into the Coruscant sky in the area of the garden they had gotten to. "Ah. Looks like my reinforcements have arrived to take care of the rest of you and Vader's rebellion."

Ahsoka followed his gaze to see an Imperial star destroyer come into the atmosphere. It was a tilt in Palpatine's favor, but not a sign of his imminent victory.

"We don't need to defeat your fleet," Ahsoka said as she subtly shifted into a firm stance, aware of a shift in the demeanor of the Royal Guard. Forget waiting on Sidious to make a move. She didn't have time to play his mind games. "We just need to defeat you."

"Arrogant. Just like a Jedi," Sidious bit out.

The two Royal Guards behind him took this as their cue to step toward her with force pikes. Ahsoka was also not unaware of the two guards coming to flank her from behind. They initially didn't make a move to subdue her. The Force, much less loud than it been during her pregnancy but still a lot louder than it had been before she was pregnant, whispered at her to wait for just the right moment.

A few tense seconds and then…

_Now._

Ahsoka pulled both her sabers to her hands, blocking the force pike that came her way from the guard at her front left and then ducking under the pike that came at her from behind. She saw an opening and took the opportunity to swiftly roll past the two on her right as to not be surrounded on all sides. She ignored the sharp sting of pain in her lower abdomen, ignored the fact that her balance was still a little off, and focused on the task at hand. The task not being the Royal Guard but to get to Palpatine. Palpatine, who always sent his lackeys ahead of him to wear out his opponents. In fact, that was what this whole siege was about. Wear them down in body and spirit so he could take advantage of it. It wasn't a trick Ahsoka planned to fall for.

Ignoring her ominous aches, ignoring Palpatine's glee and his cackling off to the side, she took a deep breath and focused on the Force. On instincts honed into her over two decades of training.

Seeing with a sight that wasn't physical, she lunged for the guards, making herself move faster, forcing the aches away until she didn't feel them at all. Her lightsabers clashing alternately against the four blades. They hadn't been ready for her speed and agility, barely keeping up with the whirling of her white blades. Two worked together to cross her blade in their pikes, a mistake on their part. She'd done this to Vader before, and every time, he'd managed to maneuver out the technique without being forced to drop his blade. It was slightly different when one person wasn't the one controlling the blade, but Ahsoka adjusted.

They hadn't expected her to maneuver her blade out their hold that fast. Ahsoka took the opening they left in their defense to disarm them and behead them right after.

Two down. Two to go.

She turned to face the other two guards. They were looking at her with a calculating tilt to their red helmets, now aware that they were dealing with an above-average Force user. Ahsoka used their indecision to her advantage. Or, she was going to. But the guards weren't as indecisive as she had thought. They pointed their pikes at her, and suddenly she was surrounded by an invisible force field that held her suspended tightly in place, forcing her to drop her lightsabers.

She was just using the Force to lift a heavy boulder in the garden to sweep them off their feet when the guards were suddenly seized. They dropped their pikes, and Ahsoka dropped to the ground. The guards probably would have fallen too if not for the power suspending them in the air.

Ahsoka didn't need to see Vader to know he'd found them. But she was surprised she hadn't sensed him before. Perhaps the dark rot of the Emperor's presence was so vast it could even mask Vader's dark presence. Or maybe she'd just been too focused on the task at hand. On ignoring everything that wasn't a threat to her.

"I didn't need you to save me," Ahsoka said, feigning annoyance. As she did so, she stood up and turned to Palpatine rather than looking to find Vader. Palpatine, who was ignoring her and instead frowning in a direction just off to her right.

"You really thought I would allow you to get all the excitement and glory?" Vader quipped.

His voice sounded odd. Like an echo of his natural voice mixed in with the deep harshness of his voice modulator. When he finally made his way through the thick trees to where they were, Ahsoka saw why. A big chunk of the upper right side of his mask was gone, revealing his yellow right eye and the old, angry scar over it that Ahsoka had never thought to ask where he'd got. The respirator was also quieter than normal. It lacked the odd whistling noise that was usually the obvious indicator that something was wrong, but the blinking indicator lights flashed red and fast, showing the suit was compromised.

Like Ahsoka, Vader turned to face the Emperor. Remembering perhaps as an afterthought the guards in his grip, the lifeless bodies fell to the ground.

"Lord Vader," Sidious said. "You disappoint me."

"I am in no mood for your mind games, _my master_. Today, your reign ends," Vader declared, red lightsaber coming to life.

Any other time, Ahsoka might have chided Vader for being too hasty. But she was in full agreement. It was time to end this. She summoned her blades back to her hands, making experimental swipes to right her balance.

Sidious' lightsaber appeared in his hand, though unlit.

If it were possible, the Force became even more consumed with the rot of Sidious' presence. But this time, Vader's Force signature pushed back against it, roaring in indignation at the Force trying to subdue it again. Ahsoka had sensed Vader's hate and rage to varying degrees over the years. But it was nothing like the all-consuming hate and rage radiating from him as he faced Sidious now. An odd codependent relationship built on lies, broken promises, and countless betrayals.

This fight had been a long time coming.

It was a wonder, Ahsoka thought, with the disdain between them that Sidious hadn't moved to kill Vader or replace him a long time ago. But she supposed Sidious was smart enough not to kill his chief weapon for a weaker one unnecessarily. Not without someone that could be that strong, the children he'd sought, in waiting. It was also no wonder Vader was always in such a terrible mood when he had to deal with the Emperor.

"And I grow tired of your defiance, _my apprentice_," Sidious snarled.

He lit his lightsaber and attacked.

* * *

**AN: **1) Something I think is really interesting is the way that Sidious isn't lying when he notes how alike he and Ahsoka are. Part of Ahsoka's arc in the Clone Wars is that people constantly underestimate her, and she constantly surprises them by doing that by all odds she shouldn't be able to do. All the way until she escapes the initial purges in canon where she manages to get Rex's chip taken out and then goes head to head with the clones until she can escape without killing them. It's something I plan to play up when I rewrite my dark Ahsoka series in which she ends up Sidious' apprentice rather than Anakin (It's in line behind at least one other project, so not for a while). But I think it was inevitable that it came up here.

2) When I first started writing this, I knew one issue was the prevailing idea in the fandom and even interpreted that way by JJ Abrams in ST is that Palpatine is this all omniscient force who can see into the future like he was reading a newspaper. It was an issue because that meant I had to figure out how the heck Sidious would be practically blind to what Ahsoka was doing until it was too late. Then, upon exploring canon, I observed that it appeared that Sidious doesn't have "true" Force visions. If he did and were truly this omnipotent force, he would have seen that Vader was going to turn on him to save Luke, and he even would have seen in tRoS that Rey wasn't dead and would beat him. So I figure out there must be some limit to this "Force vision." A limit could also explain when he never saw Ahsoka coming and couldn't see her in his visions. I think his visions depend on him having a frame of reference for the future. Without that frame of reference, his "visions" are no better than guessing. So to make the future he wanted with Anakin becoming his apprentice, he had to get to know Anakin and create the circumstances that would inevitably lead to that outcome. Thus, he succeeds. But the times Sidious fails is the times he doesn't take something into account.

In RotJ, he doesn't know Luke. He knows Luke is similar to his father, though, so he threatens Luke with the people he loves and doesn't consider that Luke doesn't have the obsessive component about it that Anakin had. With Vader, he thinks he's so utterly got him under his thumb, so utterly destroyed Anakin Skywalker, that Sidious thinks Vader would value his place with Sidious over his son's life. So he never foresees Vader betraying him the way he does. With Ahsoka, he's never spent any time with her (or at the very least said more than two words to her). So he doesn't know enough about her to use her weaknesses against her, thus trying to see a vision of her is no more helpful than flipping a coin. In essence, Palpatine's visions are like an algebraic equation. To get the outcome he wants, he has to solve for X. But to solve for x, he needs the right formula. Hope you got that.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review, follow, and favorite, please. I appreciate the support and insights.


	80. Free

**Chapter Eighty: ****Free**

Vader never got the chance to see what kind of fighting team he and Ahsoka would make when they were on the same side in combat. Certainly, he had fought with her when she was his student and against her when they sparred. But that wasn't the same as fighting with someone on equal footings. There'd been one short mission before the Council sought to split them apart. After his change in alliances and they became co-conspirators to remove Palpatine, they'd come across each other on the same side of a fight on precisely two occasions. Neither occasion involved them fighting an opponent in a lightsaber duel. Other than that, neither had gotten a chance to test how compatible they were in direct combat.

Back when Vader had called himself Anakin Skywalker, his partnership with his former Jedi master, one Obi-wan Kenobi, had frequently been sensationalized in media as the "dream team." Hating the media nearly as much as he hated politicians, Kenobi had frequently scowled or rolled his eyes at the sensationalist title when he heard it. Like he rolled his eyes at all the sensationalist titles given to them during the Clone Wars. The Negotiator and the Hero with no Fear being the most prominent.

Vader, on the other hand, had relished in the admiration of the public while simultaneously despising the names they put on them. What the public would have said if they realized that he'd practically lived in a constant state of fear and anxiety for the people he cared for. That the only reason he would rush so unhesitatingly into danger was because the alternative was unthinkable. What the public would also say if they knew that their so-called dream team was fractured, barely holding together at the seams.

But he and Kenobi had been able to set their differences aside, to repress all the resentment and pain toward the bigger goal of ending the war. And what a team they'd been. Even Vader could admit that. On his own, he hardly ever lost a battle. When he and Kenobi worked together, they'd been almost unstoppable. An extension of each other. Possessing a sync with each other borne of years fighting at each other's side.

He and Ahsoka didn't have that benefit.

Yet all the same, when his master's lightsaber lit and, quicker than one might expect given his feeble appearance, the Emperor moved to engage them, Vader felt the bond with Ahsoka vibrate to life between them. Even as Sidious sought to divide them, Vader fell into sync with Ahsoka in a way he hadn't fallen into sync with anyone else. Practically knowing her next move in the same way he knew his own as her white blades clashed with Sidious' red one and complimented his own red blade.

But even that wasn't going to be enough to overcome Sidious. Not on its own. Not when Sidious had the home turf advantage. Not when Vader—through his vibrating Force bond with Ahsoka—saw the depth of the darkness and rot that he'd become somewhat desensitized to. It was like Sidious' own personal locus. Everything about Coruscant and, especially, this planet fed Sidious' power. That, combined with the decades of experience more that the old Sith had on them was enough for him to be more than a match for even Vader's and Ahsoka's might in the Force combined. Not to mention that connected to Ahsoka as he was in that moment, the sense that something was amiss with her became a sense that something was downright wrong. And it would be so easy to pry a little further to investigate…

He mentally steadied himself. Even if there was something wrong with Ahsoka, there was nothing he could do about it now. Not engaged with his master. If anything, it was all the more reason to come up with a way to turn this fight to their favor.

Vader refocused himself, just in time to be just grazed on his right thigh by Sidious' saber. Ahsoka took the opportunity to use the Force to push Sidious across the garden and a good distance away from them. While Sidious fell backward into a bush with delicate white blossoms, Ahsoka grabbed his arm and led him back into the small amass of colorful blossoms from Felucia.

"This isn't going to work," Ahsoka managed between panting.

"I know," Vader replied, ignoring the sting in his thigh.

If only they'd been able to confront Sidious on their own terms. Even if Vader hadn't managed to find a way to kill Sidious without direct confrontation, they could have drawn him out. Drawn him away from the epicenter of his power, both political, military, and Force-wise. If Vader hadn't been so eager to confront his master, perhaps he could have managed that a few days ago, even after Sidious put out the call to arrest him for treason.

Vader forced himself not to dwell on the past. It was done now.

"We need…" Vader paused. An idea dawned on him. "Higher ground."

It was the tactic Kenobi had used on him all those years ago on Mustafar when he realized that he couldn't beat Vader in an outright confrontation. He'd gained the higher ground and might have won their duel had Ahsoka not intervened. Vader wasn't so young and prideful that he couldn't admit that now. That given the terrain and environment of their duel, he might have lost that fight. It wouldn't give them the same advantage here in this garden, but it was something.

"Where?" Ahsoka asked.

Vader didn't miss the way she winced and pressed a hand to her lower abdomen as she said this, but he once again filed it away for later.

He'd been to the gardens once or twice. Palpatine liked to spend time here to go over matters of the Empire between the two when he didn't want to be in the throne room or a conference room. Most of the time, Vader didn't focus on the scenery. But elaborate as this place was, there had to be some type of high ground somewhere.

Vader extended himself in the Force, using the Force like an echolocating sense. Not always a helpful power and one that usually took way too much time to use on a regular basis. But since he had just forgotten the terrain and was just refamiliarizing himself rather than learning it, the sense worked quicker. It helped him remember there was a stone stairway that led up to one of the many terraces in the garden.

"Come on," Vader directed, grabbing Ahsoka's arm. She resisted.

"Just give me a minute," she said quietly.

Before Vader could assess what was going on, the comm in his helmet began to beep.

_"Vader,"_ came Sabé's voice when he answered the call. _"Where are you?"_

"Trying to gain the upper hand against Palpatine."

_"At the palace?"_

"Where else?" Vader snapped.

Unmoved by his irritation, Sabé said, _"We're coming for you."_

"We?" Vader repeated. That was when he heard blaster bolts, explosions, and the general noise of battle in the background. "Sabé, where—?"

The line disconnected.

"Sabé?" Ahsoka asked.

Vader didn't get a chance to answer her. The Force rang a warning, and the trees that had been shielding them exploded and sent them both flying in opposite directions. The ringing in his ears hardly stopped before he got another urgent warning from the Force. There was no time to heed it. His nerves screamed in pain as lightning poured into him from Sidious' hands. He'd endured the fire of Sidious' lightning on multiple occasions, but Sidious had no desire to maim Vader any more than he was or kill him back then. Not unless it was necessary. Certainly not without an adequate replacement.

Apparently, Sidious found the necessity because the lightning was more intense and painful than anything he'd suffered at Sidious' hands. And though Vader sensed Sidious still didn't want to kill him, he certainly desired to incapacitate him. To remind him why, if Sidious had his way, he'd only be his Sith apprentice. A slave to his whims. Nothing more or less.

The intensity of the lightning would have been enough to fully compromise his suit in perfect working order. But compromised as it was, it wasn't long before he got the warning in his visor of the respirator failing.

Before he could gather the Force through his pain to push the lightning back at Sidious, the Sith Master stopped and whirled around in time to meet Ahsoka's blades with his own. The force sent Ahsoka backward, but she held her ground and shifted her stance to face Sidious down.

"Such a pity. For all your many talents, you inherited your master's weakness," Sidious said scornfully.

"I won't let him suffer under you anymore," Ahsoka breathed, pointing one of her sabers at Sidious.

"Isn't that what you do now?" Sidious said, gesturing to Vader. "This need not end in violence. This need not end in either one of your deaths. Join me, and his safety will be assured. As will be the safety of your children."

"You offered Vader that deal. Didn't turn out well. Not to mention you just injected him with lightning. Doesn't look like safety to me."

"Only because of his disobedience," Sidious stated. "You can stop this whenever you want. But continue to resist, and he will certainly die. And you with him."

Though Vader knew Sidious didn't know he wasn't wholly dependent on the suit and its capabilities, he wasn't necessarily wrong. Vader wasn't sure how long he'd last between the intensity of the fight and the harm by the lightning to his already compromised respiratory system. Neither was Ahsoka, judging by the way he felt her gaze shift to him.

Vader suddenly remembered what she'd admitted when she confessed the depth of her feelings for him. That she wasn't sure she wouldn't damn the galaxy for him. And in that moment, he understood why Padmé had been so desperate to get him to go away with her, even if it meant her death. Why Ahsoka had insisted on pretending their relationship was a complicated but firmly stagnant friendship for years out of fear of what he might do to protect her. Serving Sidious was nothing but suffering. Nothing but living under constant threat of everything and everyone he cared for being ripped away. And when it was ripped away, being convinced that it was his own fault because to blame it on the person truly responsible would mean to have no one. To be truly alone in the galaxy. He'd rather die than let Ahsoka be subjected to that.

Ahsoka proved stronger than he ever had, though, and turned her gaze from him and back to Sidious as she adjusted her stance.

"Guess we'll die then," she declared before attacking Sidious.

Vader would not let her fight alone though and flexed his hands, ignoring the twitch in his right arm. Then he reached up to take off his helmet and mask. It impaired his breathing more than it did anything to help when damaged. But his mechanical hand was too twitchy and couldn't press the release on the right side that had to be simultaneously pressed with the one on the left.

Resigning himself to make do, Vader forced himself onto one shaky knee, gathering the Force around him to give him the strength to get up. When he felt the vibrations of footsteps thundering towards him, he willed himself to move faster. No doubt, they were reinforcements for Sidious. Sure enough, blaster fire followed.

But the reinforcements weren't for Sidious.

Diya, Sabé, Rex, Obi-wan, and, off all people, _Barriss Offee_ made their way into the garden. Behind them, Vader sensed another battle. Presumably their troops holding off the Imperial Center ones and the rest of the Imperial guard.

Sabe rushed over to him while the rest began to engage with Sidious, giving Ahsoka a much-needed break.

"The more I get to know you, the more I see what Padmé saw in you. You have the same propensity for stupidly walking into danger that she did. Worse even," Sabé snapped as she knelt in front of him.

"Yet here you are," Vader wheezed through the mask.

Sabé shrugged, looking him over. "You're a piece of work, but we had no intention of leaving you to this demon from the innermost Corellian hell. Now what happened?"

"Sith lightning. Help me get this kriffing mask off."

Sabé relented, pressing the release buttons to remove the helmet. She tossed it aside and removed the masked and hermetic collar. The relief to his breathing was instant, though his chest still ached from the lightning. He began to stand, but Sabé gestured for him to wait as she took something out of her pocket. One of his quick-acting steroid shots, usually taken in-between his regular treatments.

"Do you always carry one of those around?" he asked as Sabé took out a pair of scissors and cut the fabric over his arm.

"No. But I figured if you were facing the Emperor, you might need it," she said, jamming the shot into his arm.

She unceremoniously dropped it on the ground and picked up her blaster, while Vader recalled his lightsaber and got to his feet.

"Time to end this," Vader muttered.

"I wholeheartedly agree," Sabé said as they made their way back to the fight.

By the time they got there, Ahsoka and Obi-wan were facing off against Sidious while Rex was maintaining a perimeter around them to keep the Imperial Guard that managed to get through away off to the side. A little ways away, Barriss Offee was bent over Diya, who was missing her left leg from her knee down.

"Nice of you to finally join us," Obi-wan chirped.

"You know Anakin, Master Kenobi. He'd be late to his own funeral," Ahsoka quipped.

Vader rolled his eyes, not taking his eyes off Sidious.

"Well. It seems the depth of your betrayal knows no bounds, Lord Vader," Sidious spat.

"Learned from the best," Vader said.

Out the corner of his eye, he saw Obi-wan nod to Ahsoka. Ahsoka only pursed her lips and raised her sabers. All three attacked Sidious from different sides. Sidious might have been overwhelmed if he hadn't retrieved another lightsaber, tilting the fight in his favor.

Frustration welled up in Vader, and the dark side rose up to beckon him further into its depths. Though Sidious benefitted from the exuberant power of the dark side that concentrated at the Imperial Palace, he was not the only one who could benefit from it. Vader could benefit from it too. But that meant delving into the depths of the dark side that not even he was sure he could control himself in. That he couldn't even ensure wouldn't drive him temporarily insane. He felt a beckoning from another part of the Force. One he hadn't touched in a decade, even as he inhabited and walked the shadows of the dark side that were close to it. The light. But that was liable to make him go mad for other reasons he didn't want to face right now.

But this couldn't last forever. They couldn't beat Sidious on his own turf like this. Not without…

An opening in Obi-wan's defense allowed Sidious to burn his shoulder and cause the Jedi to drop his blade. Distracted by Obi-wan's disarming, Ahsoka barely blocked Sidious' strike to one of her montrals. Then Sidious surprised her by grabbing her in a Force choke. Somewhat. Vader had taught her years ago how to use the Force to pry the invisible grip away, but Sidious was too powerful. Sidious' moment of focus on her would have been the opportune time to catch him by surprise and turn the fight in their favor. But Vader wouldn't do that with Ahsoka in his grip. So he extended his own abilities to help Ahsoka pry the invisible grip off her neck.

No sooner than Ahsoka was released, doubled over coughing and holding her lower abdomen yet again, Vader attacked Sidious. Sidious blocked and locked their blades.

"Foolish apprentice. Give up this foolhardy attempt now, and I will be lenient in my punishment of you."

Vader gritted his teeth, forcing his mechanical hand not to twitch as he pressed his blade against Sidious' two. The deepest depths of the dark side beckoned him to use it, promising to bend to his will over Sidious'. To make him the true Sith Master. But who knew what it would do to him? Force knew, though he'd admit it to no one, his sanity teetered on a precarious balance. Many would say that he wasn't sane at all. But he couldn't draw on the light. The light would not be enough for someone as far gone as he was. And though he loathed to do it, though he feared what the outcome would be, venturing to the depths of the dark side that he'd been careful not to explore was a risk he had to take.

He caught Ahsoka out the corner of his eyes, not quite doubled over, but also not able to fully stand up straight from whatever injury she wasn't forthcoming about. She managed to catch his eye and then frowned.

_What are you doing?_ she sent across the bond.

He sent all the depth of his feelings for her back across it. Frustration. Contentment. Long-suffering. Uncertainty. Trust. Gratitude. Hope. Love. The good, the bad, the ugly over the years. He let it all vibrate across the bond before sending, _You'll be my anchor? You'll help me come back if I need it?_

Grim determination vibrated back along with, _Always._

Ahsoka was a lot of things. Good and bad. But a liar was not one of them. And with her reassurance, he gave in to the beckoning of the dark side and plunged himself into its depths. Vader hadn't felt this exhilarated and intoxicatingly high on the power of the dark since he pledged himself to Sidious and stopped ignoring it's beckoning. It had been liberating, making him feel unstoppable, like the galaxy should bend to his will. And if they hadn't, he'd use his power to make them or eliminate them. Like when he'd marched on the Jedi Temple and killed the Jedi. Gone to Mustafar to kill the Separatists. Grabbed Padmé in a Force choke to force her into compliance when he thought she'd betrayed him.

Liberating as it had been, he'd lost control. He'd done things that he regretted, though there were few he'd admit that to. He'd hardly admit it to himself.

But even as he finally unpacked and unleashed nearly a decade of careful restraint, of swallowing his frustration and anger and impatience, the years had also helped him gain a finer sense of control. A finesse with the dark side. A control he'd lacked a decade ago that caused him to unleash it on every unfortunate soul that dared to act like they opposed him. And with that control, though his festering dark emotions were unrestrained, though he went further into the dark side's depth than he ever had, Vader was able to funnel it all at Sidious.

Both Sidious and Vader called out to the dark side as the duel reached the fever pitch of an inevitable culmination. Vader's call was heeded, the darkness recognizing him as its new master.

Sidious was just too slow once, and Vader took the opportunity to stab Sidious through his stomach. Sidious wasn't quite dead yet, though, and moved his blade to take of Vader's remaining flesh arm. A blaster bolt pierced the Sith's shoulder, ruining his form halfway through the motion. And then Vader did what he should have done a decade ago when he learned of the man's true nature and took off his head with his lightsaber.

Suddenly the garden seemed incredibly silent. Not totally because their forces were still making work of the enemy outside the room trying to get to them. But silent because the Force had suddenly gone incredibly still before something like tentative relief along with disbelief began to sing in the Force.

Sidious was dead.

Sidious was dead.

And now Vader was faced with the full weight of having to figure out what to do now that he had no master to answer to. What next?

The dark side gave its eager suggestions. To exercise his dominance. To force everyone into compliance. To force those who would still reject the Empire to get in line or—

"Vader."

Vader snapped out his thoughts to look down at Ahsoka, who had come to stand in front of him but was still slightly hunched over.

"It's okay," she said, raising her free hand to touch his face. The other held Diya's blaster, and he put together that she was the one that shot Sidious in the shoulder. "You're free now."

For the first time in a very long time, Vader felt like he could breathe.

Free. That covered a broad scope of things, but in particular, free to walk away from the darkness. Or rather, free to distance himself from it. To not dwell in the icy depths that had been forced upon him for so long. But was that what he really wanted? He was the Sith Master now. The master of the dark side of the Force.

The thought was lost when Ahsoka's hand suddenly dropped, the blaster falling to the ground as she slumped sideways. Vader barely caught her before she hit the ground.

"Ahsoka," he said in alarm. "Ahsoka!"

She didn't answer, and Vader carefully knelt down and laid her on the ground.

"Come on," Vader said, grabbing her by the shoulders and giving her a good shake.

"Don't do that!" Offee cried.

She pushed him out of the way, and given the circumstances, Vader allowed it.

"Milord, I'm trying to get a medical team here, but they aren't going to be able to get past all the fighting. You've got to send a message to the Imperial Center forces to cease fire," Sabé said. Because, of course, she was already way ahead of him. Forcesend that she was.

Vader wasn't exactly sure how to do that. They hadn't planned for this. They planned for everything up to it but not… Vader didn't know what to do. He'd always had Ahsoka to help him with logistics like this. And he hadn't been able to get a glimpse of her in his visions, but he never contemplated that it was because Ahsoka wasn't there.

"Vader," Sabé said, snapping him out of his panic.

Vader turned to Sidious's body and grabbed the wrist of the dead body. He snatched off the complex wrist comm and pulled up the holographic screen. The only one with access to this comm was Sidious. Any order sent through it would unquestionably be obeyed. He didn't have the codes to access all its capabilities nor the time to splice it. But all he needed to send was one order using the emergency signal. A signal that could be unlocked solely with Sidious' fingerprints. Vader grabbed a dead hand to activate the comm and send the signal. Once that was done, he turned his attention back to Ahsoka.

"She's hemorrhaging," Barriss said.

"She kept holding her stomach. Is that why?" Vader asked.

Barriss didn't answer as she worked on trying to get Ahsoka awake.

And then Vader felt the spot where he was connected to her, the vibrant bond that had only ever strengthened over the years, begin to dim.

Barriss cursed.

Vader didn't wait to find out why as he shoved her out of the way while stubbornly latching onto their bond. Ahsoka was not allowed to die on him. The Force wasn't allowed to take her away from him. Not when he'd finally overcome his final master. Not when they'd suffered for a decade trying to mitigate and right his sins. Not after all this suffering. Not after all the loss he'd already suffered.

And then, the bond slipped from his grasp, no longer where he'd always known it to be.

He put his hands on either side of her head, pushing aside the panic that threatened to overcome him when he noticed she wasn't breathing.

"Come on," he said, closing his eyes and searching.

Where was she? She wasn't allowed to leave him. She _couldn't_.

He reached out to where she usually resided in the Force, extending himself as far as he could while asking the Force to help him reach her. It remained stubbornly silent. Vader was just as stubborn, thrusting all his will and determination into the Force. Pleading. No. Demanding that it aid him. He would never be a saint, but it could never be said he hadn't played whatever galaxy forsaken role the Force had carved out for him. The Jedi were almost extinct, so were the Sith, and he'd done nothing but suffer under both. The Force owed him this. It owed him the one thing that made that suffering less.

And this time, when he called out for its help, the Force acquiesced to his demand, and Vader felt Ahsoka's presence spark to life again and weakly latch onto him in the Force. A choking sound came from her before her breathing resumed. Shallow, but there.

He nearly collapsed in relief, refusing to let go of her in the Force, dangerous as it was for him to continue holding onto her in this state.

The medical team came soon after. Cruisers full of them. Vader didn't even want to know how Sabé had mobilized so many that fast, nor did he honestly care as he stood overbearingly over the medical team while they worked to stabilize Ahsoka from whatever injury had seized her.

"He needs help too," Sabé directed.

"I'm fine," Vader dismissed.

"You haven't looked in the mirror. How do your lungs feel right now?" Sabé asked pointedly.

And now that she mentioned it, Vader's lungs did feel like he was breathing fire with every breath.

"The Empire," Vader protested, but that made the fire in his lungs feel worse.

"Will still stand long enough for you to get medical attention," Obi-wan said.

Clearly, Kenobi gave Vader's enemies and those who might try to take advantage of this chaos more credit than they deserved. Vader didn't have the breath to snap that at the Jedi.

* * *

**AN: **Okay. A lot of things.

1) I purposely saved the first time that Ahsoka and Vader are ever on the same side in a lightsaber fight in this story for this battle. Well... not at first. I kinda realized halfway the story that I had done that and realized that it made sense anyway because why would they? When would they other than this moment.

2) Very inadvertently, Ahsoka's demand that Vader learn restraint and control was the best training in the dark side that Vader could have ever gotten. Because even when he's forced to reach further to the dark side than he ever has, he's the one in control. Even when for a brief moment (right before Ahsoka collapses) it looks like he isn't, he is.

3) There is too much sadness in Star Wars. Even in this story, there's a lot of sadness but no. I wasn't going to kill Vader or Ahsoka. The tags say eventual happy ending. There was no way to deliver on that if I killed off the heroine and anti-hero. If I'd done that, I wouldn't be able to call this story a romance. The rule of romance is that the main pairing get a HEA, and I was sticking to it. The canon story of Ahsoka and Anakin is tragic enough. And other writers can make these two as tragic as they like. But you will likely never get that kind of tragic story with these two from me... in this era of my fanfic writing anyway. As far as my stories are concerned, they are immortal and will be together forever and ever, and I will die on that hill.

4) I'm not going to talk about my future fic plans until after this entire story is over. However, I am absolutely going to write a story about Vader and Sabé in this universe. Because they have become unlikely bros in this story. Sabé treats him as an exasperating little brother who she has to do everything for, and Vader treats her as the nagging older sister. That dynamic comes across a little in Sabé's interlude, but I'm going to write a little oneshot that explores that dynamic more.

Hope you enjoyed! Review, favorite, and follow. I appreciate the support and insights.


	81. Uncovering

**Chapter Eighty-One: Uncovering**

There was a brief commotion about who was allowed to get information about and make decisions for Ahsoka. One that would have resulted in the death of the doctor managing the team for her care had Vader not had enough awareness to understand that killing him would put Ahsoka's life more at risk. Not to mention, he truly didn't have the energy to kill anyone. He was exhausted and depleted in the Force. The suit's life supports were offline right now. Ahsoka was teetering on the knife's edge of death. And suddenly, he was now the one in charge of the largest governmental entity in the galaxy. What little energy he had was used to keep himself from spiraling into unrestrained, dark side fueled panic.

Eventually, Obi-wan stepped in and pointed out that Vader was effectively the new emperor, and were they really going to deny their new sovereign leader the information he sought? As it was, there was no information or updates for the doctors to give yet. It didn't take Vader long to figure out that he'd be useless sitting around waiting for any piece of news. In fact, he might just make the medical team nervous. So, he contacted his fleet, now sitting in orbit around Imperial Center in a tense ceasefire with the planet's forces. Once he was through, he directed for one of his back up suits to be brought to him.

While he waited, he began to delegate. Most of the galaxy might hate him, and he had trust issues that he'd likely never get over, but if Ahsoka could trust someone, then Vader supposed so could he.

He couldn't delay sending an official transmission that there was a new galactic power. Rumors had a way of quickly circulating through the Imperial military and causing chaos, especially a rumor of the Emperor's demise. Sabé may have performed many miracles over the years, but she couldn't deliver that news for him. So he directed her to be the one that received all the information and updates on Ahsoka. He didn't even have to direct Rex to guard Ahsoka. Already he had set up a team and rotation to secure the entire floor of the medical center. Offee and Obi-wan went to update the Rebellion and the rest of the Rebellion High Command. After they did that, Obi-wan allocated resources to get started on dismantling the most critical parts of Palpatine's Contingency.

By the time he'd done that, his suit arrived. Though Palpatine was long gone, it would be a while before he was freed of the confines of the suit. The suit was the face of Darth Vader. The suit was what people recognized as the highest authority in the Empire after Palpatine. The suit gave him power and would make the rest of the galaxy submit and be loath to cause trouble during this delicate transitory period. And frankly, it was the mask of Vader that gave people pause and made people whisper. Palpatine had been relatively secluded during his reign, rarely leaving Imperial Center in the last few years. But Vader had always been the monster they could see. The one sent to force planets into compliance when they resisted. As far as the galaxy would be concerned, he was now a monster without a leash. One that was better not to tempt for now. Vader planned to use it to his advantage.

With the suit in place, it relieved some of the pressure on his respiratory system, buying him time to press on before Sabé got his personal medical team there. He went back to the palace, surrounded by a team of his fist. He first checked where they'd left Palpatine's dismembered body in the garden, surrounded by a guard of troopers. Vader would never be too paranoid when it came to his former master. He wouldn't put it past the man to have some contingency to put his body back together using some insane, unnatural dark side power that he had kept Vader from discovering.

Palpatine's body was still there. Good. He'd personally see to burning it later.

With that done, he made his way back up to the throne room, where the bodies of inquisitors and adepts that ambushed him earlier lay dead. Vader made a mental note to assign someone with the task to find the rest of the red guard that might be on missions across the galaxy. Given their fierce loyalty to Sidious, he didn't trust that he'd be able to get them to transfer their allegiance to him. Ahsoka wasn't going to like it. But the truth was that some people were just going to have to be killed or else they'd become enemies for them later.

Vader had no desire to use his former master's throne, but to fit into the frame of the camera in the room, he was forced to. His broadcast was nowhere near as eloquent as Palpatine could make himself to be. Or even how Ahsoka had learned to be when she was forced to. But he got the general point across. Palpatine was a traitor to the Empire (true from a point of view), refused to leave office and transfer the power of his rulership (also true from a point of view), was forcibly removed from office, and Vader was assuming the role of Emperor.

He had enough political savvy to leave out the details of how they forcibly removed him. For all Sidious' evil, he had finely crafted a persona of a physically helpless old man to fool the Empire into thinking he was mostly harmless. They'd figure out what truths to release to the public later. For now, it was enough information to stay any resistance until he could solidify his hold on the Empire.

And then, he announced his first act as Emperor. A temporary ceasefire with the Rebellion. Not the best way to handle that. But there was no way the Rebellion could mess up when he'd said it on a galactic broadcast, even with their leader temporarily out of commission.

Starting to feel the aches and soreness from a long day of conflicts, Vader figured the Empire would hold itself together long enough to tend to his own health. Sure enough, when he returned to the medical center, Sabé informed him that his personal medical team would be planetside in a day or so. However, there was a tightness to her lips and furrow to her brow.

"What did they say? What happened?" Vader demanded.

"Nothing bad. Once they figured out what was wrong, it was easy to stabilize her. She'll be fine. They want to let her get a little more stable, put her in a bacta tank for a day, and she'll be good as new," Sabé informed him.

"That's good news," Vader said, still not understanding what had Sabé so unsettled.

"It's the reason she was hemorrhaging that has me concerned," she admitted. Sabé looked around. There were only guards milling about, but they could never have enough privacy.

Sabé nodded for him to follow her down the halls of the medical floor they'd taken over. They ended up at another private room wherein Diya was sitting up with her arms crossed and an irritated look on her face.

"What?"

Sabé barely waited for the door to close before she explained. "The hemorrhaging wasn't from an injury in a fight. It was from childbirth."

Vader frowned and crossed his arms. "Right now is an incredibly ill-advised time for you to have found a sense of humor, Sabé."

"This isn't a joke," Sabé insisted with her usual candor. "She gave birth. And then ran headfirst into battle only hours afterward."

Vader looked at Sabé stunned, for lack of any other description. At this point, Sabé had built up enough value that he might not even threaten her with physical violence if she took it all back as a joke.

She didn't.

His first thought was that just when he thought Ahsoka couldn't outdo her own recklessness, especially after that stunt with Jabba, she proved him wrong. The next thought was that it wasn't even possible she'd been pregnant at all, to begin with. He'd admit that sometimes they could be a little reckless, even though age had tempered the recklessness of their youth. But both of them were at least responsible enough to know a child in the middle of a war that they were personally propagating was a bad idea. Having the twins during all this was chaotic enough. Adding a third child, a baby at that, was not just impractical. It was dangerous. The third thought was the realization that he had a third child. A third child that Ahsoka had given birth to and was nowhere in the vicinity. A third child he didn't even know she was pregnant with.

It dawned on him that this was the thing she said she was going to tell him when she got the chance.

And then his stunned shock gave way to fury as he turned to Diya.

"You all let her come here, knowing she was pregnant."

"Hold the kriff on before you start throwing blame around," the girl snapped. "First, we didn't know she was pregnant. No one did. Second, even if we did, when has anyone ever been able to stop Ahsoka from doing anything that she puts her mind to? You have a hard time doing it."

He would concede the latter point.

"How the hell do you not notice your commanding officer is pregnant?"

Because even those closest to Padmé had known. They hadn't said anything, but they'd noticed.

"How were we supposed to know? Sure we noticed she changed her wardrobe, but she's the leader and commanding officer of a Rebellion. We thought she was just making the conscious effort to look the part. Not to mention, how was anyone supposed to know you two were _currently_ a thing instead of exes?" Diya bit.

"It's still a grave oversight for people who claim to be so dedicated to her."

If she weren't missing part of a leg, Vader was sure Diya would have stood to her feet.

"This is no one's fault but yours. The reason she didn't tell anyone was because of you. She knows people hate you. _Everyone_ hates you. And they might forgive her for children conceived when you were they're kriffing hero but not one after you turned on the galaxy. You were her friend, and you betrayed her. She should _hate_ you. But she doesn't. And she risked her life to save your ass after having your kit. This is no one's fault but your own!"

If Vader were a younger man with a worse temper and less restraint who didn't want to face his faults and thought he could take on the galaxy alone, he might have given into the urge to choke Diya. But he wasn't that person anymore. He knew the necessity and benefits of restraint. And while he could do all the planning and orchestrating, and deal the final blow, he couldn't take on the galaxy alone. Mouthy as she was, Diya had proven her loyalty and her worth. Even Palpatine had humored some level of disrespect from those loyal to him and the Empire.

Still.

"I see you continue to speak of things you know nothing about," Vader said in a calm, quiet tone. "Your loyalty and achievement deserve commendation and have exemplified your worth to this Empire. But I warn you. Do not continue to test my patience."

If his tone didn't convey the warning, the flare of his dark Force signature did. And though Diya's eyes remained defiant, the fight went out of her, and she averted her gaze.

"There's plenty of blame to go around for everyone in this whole mess. But we can discuss that later," Sabé interjected. "Ahsoka gave birth, and there's _no_ baby."

Kriff.

"Call the twins. They have Ahsoka's comm," Diya said.

Vader didn't ask how Diya knew that. Just connected to Ahsoka's comm frequency. It wasn't one of the twins who answered, but the Alderaan princess.

"Winter, where are you and the twins?"

_"Uncle V?"_ the girl said in surprise.

"Uncle V?" he heard both Sabé and Diya say.

Diya outright laughed, and even Sabé couldn't stop the snort that escaped her. Vader ignored them both.

"Where are you?" Vader repeated.

_"Um… A docking bay on Imperial Center."_

"You're on Imperial Center?" Vader asked.

_"Yes. We could hear the fighting high up at the palace,"_ Winter said.

"Do you know exactly where you are, princess?" Vader asked.

_"Docking bay 0708."_

"Hold tight," Vader replied, disconnecting the comm.

Vader directed his personal trooper escort to get a transport to head to docking bay 0708 and stopped for no one afterward.

His troopers dutifully poured out ahead of him and set up a perimeter around the docking bay while five, including his commander, followed him inside. He gave no acknowledgment to the receptionist or the manager as he walked through the docking bay until he found Ahsoka's ship, the_ Resolve_. He directed his trooper escort to remain outside the ship while he went inside. No sooner than he walked off the ramp did Vader have to raise his hand and use the Force to absorb a blaster bolt.

"One of these days, you're going to accidently shoot me with that, Leia," Vader said.

"Daddy," Leia breathed, running forward and wrapping herself around his legs, blaster still in her hands. "And Mama said shoot anyone that comes through and that you or her would just deflect the bolt."

That sounded like an instruction Ahsoka would give.

Winter came from the back of the ship, and then her furrowed face loosened upon seeing him.

"Uncle V."

"You may call me Lord Vader, princess."

"I'm aware," she said cheekily.

Leia giggled at the response.

"Where's your brother?"

"He's in the back with…" Winter trailed off and exchanged a look with Leia.

"You might wanna take the mask off, Daddy. It might wake her up."

Her?

Vader removed the helmet and mask before following Leia and Winter to one of the bunks. Luke was sitting against the wall, tinkering with some piece of small machinery. He looked up as soon as Vader was standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Dad," he said quietly but didn't jump up to greet him like Leia had.

The reason why was lying next to him, sloppily swaddled in a warm blanket and sleeping peacefully.

If Vader hadn't been sure he could believe Sabé before, if he had any doubt that the medics made a mistake in their diagnoses, it was erased as he laid eyes on the newborn lying on the bed. And for the first time, now that he knew said baby was safe and taken care of by her older siblings, Vader had to wonder why Ahsoka didn't tell him. Sure, she'd given back the comm they'd used to communicate over the years, but Diya was always in contact with Sabé. Ahsoka could have gotten in touch with him. She could have told him.

_You know why_, a traitorous voice whispered in the back of his head.

He shook his head of the thought and silently approached the bed. He had no experience with holding newborns, having not met Luke and Leia until they were toddlers themselves. However, he managed to scoop the baby up into his hands, instinctively supporting her head. She didn't like being disturbed, and this came across clear as her body began to squirm. Then she let out a whine and the vague sense of disgruntlement in the Force. Disgruntlement that the little one in his hands was unconsciously pushing toward him.

Already she was powerful, the light of her brand new Force signature already so bright but still so fragile. And then he saw a flash of something that Vader would barely call a vision. Just an image. Of this newborn girl all grown up, looking like her mother, with blue streaks in her white hair, in perfect harmony with the Force. Neither blinded by the brightness of light nor left in fear or ignorant of the dark, using her inheritance to help shape the galaxy anew.

She squirmed in his hands again, and Vader gently rocked her, sending a faint impression of calm to her across the Force.

"I apologize, little one. I didn't mean to disturb you."

She settled back down, both physically and in the Force.

"Her name's Mé," Luke offered.

Winter added, "Mé Breha Skywalker."

Based on what little he knew about naming conventions in togruta cultures, Vader would have to ask Ahsoka her reasoning behind that string of names.

"One of you will have to hold her while I fly us to our destination."

"I can fly us there," Luke declared.

"You're not old enough."

"Why not? I got us past the blockade while Mom was having Mé," Luke said.

"Your mother let you run the blockade?" Vader asked sharply. Mé squirmed in his hands again, and he turned to soothe her back to sleep.

"She didn't have a choice," Leia said with a shrug.

And Ahsoka always complained that he was too lenient with the twins.

"Be that as it may, no," Vader said.

"Where is Mama?" Leia asked. "Is she… is she okay?"

Luke's and Leia's concern flowed across the Force. Vader wondered exactly how much they'd been aware of their mother's condition when she left them.

"She's fine. She'll be…" Vader trailed off. He'd almost said unconscious, but that was too harsh for everything the children had been through. "She'll be asleep for a few days. But she's fine."

The air in the ship was suddenly much lighter.

Leia, declaring that she hadn't had a chance to hold Mé, volunteered to hold her while Vader took them to the medical center.

The next few days found Vader finally getting the medical attention that he needed, but only after he ascertained that all the children were unscathed. He also got to work looking for an adequate place for them to temporarily live. He might be the new Emperor, but Ahsoka had done nothing but complain about how the Imperial Palace felt when they were there. He ended up settling on a former extended-stay exclusive high rise apartment "palace." In the past, it was used for all manner of dignitaries until Palpatine all but disbanded the Senate and requisitioned the building for Imperial use.

Settling into the penthouse apartment that spanned the entire top floor didn't take long. Staying there also added the convenience of many conference rooms and meeting areas on the lower floors. By the end of the week, all Imperial business was temporarily moved over to the building. It meant that Vader could manage the affairs of the Empire while also being a short distance from the children who were tended to by one of the maidens while he worked.

It was only supposed to be temporary, but already Luke and Leia had become attached to particular rooms and were discussing how they planned to decorate it. And, apparently, sometime between Breha's death and Bail Organa's disappearance, they'd decided Winter was their sister for she too got a designated room. Hopefully, Ahsoka wouldn't be opposed to them living here permanently because he didn't have the heart to tell Luke and Leia it was only temporary. They'd been uprooted enough times in their lives as it was.

Once the lead doctor on Ahsoka's medical team gave the clear, Ahsoka was moved to their new maybe-not-temporary residence just hours before her sedation would wear off. That also happened to be the day a pediatrician came to give Mé a one-week checkup.

From the beginning, it was clear that Mé disliked being prodded and poked at. Though she didn't immediately whine or cry, something like discomfort came off her in the Force. She certainly hated the cool metal used to check her heartbeat. But she only continued to squirm relatively peacefully, with her blue eyes wide and alert. That stopped Vader from intervening.

Vader did intervene when Mé began to make half-crying noises that would no doubt turn into the full-blown shrill cries she'd introduced the entire floor to a couple of nights ago when it took too long for him to get up and tend to her.

"Okay. She's fine. Perfectly healthy. You can stop poking and prodding at her now," Vader said, swiping the doctor's hands away.

"Lord Vader," she protested.

It was in vain. Vader had already gotten Mé's onesie back on and laid her on his shoulder, whispering comforting words while patting her back to soothe her.

The doctor sighed but knew better than to argue with him when he wasn't wrong. She mentioned that she'd be back in another week to make sure the formula that had been synthesized for Mé's unique hybrid biology was still adequate and dismissed herself. Once she was asleep, Vader went to the master bedroom where Ahsoka lay and would be awake in just a few hours. He placed Mé in the bassinet nearby.

"Your mother's going to want to see you when she wakes up," Vader said after placing a kiss on the girl's forehead.

"Master Vader," Threepio said from the doorway of the room. "Bail Organa is being escorted up to you."

By the time Vader made his out to the public seating area, Bail Organa was already seated and waiting for him with two maidens standing dutifully nearby.

"You may leave us for now," Vader directed to them. They nodded and left to wait in the foyer just outside where the elevator was.

When Bail Organa turned to look at him, his face turned pale as though he'd seen a ghost. Vader supposed it would seem that way being he was technically a dead man.

He'd debated all day whether or not to have this meeting in the suit or some other attire. Vader had chosen other attire. A sleeker outfit based on the design of the life support suit. Infinitely lighter without all the heavy armor and machinery and easier to get on and off despite having more individual pieces. Fit for official meetings and imperial business when he wasn't planning to be in the middle of a violent battlefield.

He figured he would have to get used to showing his face again now that Palpatine was gone. He hadn't gone through the trouble of freeing himself only to continue constantly living in the trappings of the suit Palpatine had designed to isolate him from all but his master.

"Anakin Skywalker," Organa said in a hushed tone.

"That name—"

"No longer has any meaning to him," came Luke's voice jokingly just before he rounded the corner with Leia and Winter. "Who did you want us to come and meet, Dad?"

Vader had actually only requested Winter. But the three children seldom did anything without each other, he'd found out over the last week.

He didn't need to answer. As soon as Winter rounded the corner and saw Organa, she ran across the room, yelling, "Papa!" as she leapt into his arms.

Organa caught her, sinking onto the couch as Winter burst into tears and rambled as much as she could remember to say while pressing kisses to her face and muttering, "I know. I know."

Vader looked at the twins and gestured for all of them to leave and give the pair some time. He was about to suggest they head to find something to do. Maybe going to the hanger or even some training in the Force. Perhaps get them started on lightsaber training if their Force abilities were well-honed enough. However, a warm vibration came across the bond that had been still and silent for the last week. So instead, he ushered Luke and Leia to their rooms, instructing them to stay there until he came to get them.

Then he went back to the bedroom where Ahsoka was visibly stirring in her sleep, letting out a trill noise from the back of her throat that was somewhere between a click and a chirp. A sound that Mé made when she was asleep sometimes or when she was peacefully awake and staring up at him with wide blue eyes. Torgurta purring, the twins had dubbed it.

Vader removed the cape of his attire and threw it across the lounge. Then he sat on the bed next to Ahsoka, waiting for her to fully awaken.

* * *

**AN: **1) Vader's really kinda of out of his depth here, which I hope came across. He really has no clue what he's doing and really is lowkey panicking because for the first time in ever, he's got no one to answer to except himself. And that can be overwhelming, especially with as big a task as what to do in the aftermath of Palpatine and by the way, for the first time in ever, his children are totally in his custody right now.

2) I was pleasantly surprised with the response to last chapter. I really struggled through writing that. As I do with all battle and fight scenes. So I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I have other thoughts but they'll have to wait. There will be another update sometime in the next 24 hours, so look out for that.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, favorite, and follow. I appreciate the support and insights.


	82. Sure

**Chapter Eighty-Two: Sure**

On a few occasions, when they lived on Alderaan during the winter, Breha packed everyone up and took them to her favorite retreat. A plateau in the mountains with a beautiful cabin villa, sloping hills of snow, and a frozen-over lake. While there, she forgot as many of her queenly duties as she responsibly could and spent days doing activities that Ahsoka had only ever seen on the holonet.

Skiing was one of Breha's favorites. And Breha had taken great amusement watching Ahsoka try to get the hang of the sport. Ahsoka's attempts always ended in spectacular disaster, and Breha had never stopped teasing her about losing all that Jedi grace when she got on a pair of skis. Despite Ahsoka's embarrassment at her uncharacteristic lack of coordination on the devices and her complaining about it, every time they'd gone, she'd dragged herself up the slope to accompany her friend. Besides, Ahsoka had taken to ice skating on the frozen lake with a lot more grace. Breha, on the other hand, had never been able to get the hang of the activity. So the teasing always evened out in the end.

The thing Ahsoka enjoyed the most, though, was when they'd gather around the fireplace with hot chocolate. The children always fell asleep in front of the warm fire quickly, exhausted from the day's activities. Breha, never able to totally stop thinking about Alderaan and her people for long, would talk about initiatives she had planned to serve her people. When he was present, Bail would give his opinions, and every now and then, Ahsoka would chime in. Or they'd play some adults-only holo card or board game.

It always made Ahsoka feel like she was sixteen again, during the Clone War. While some of her worst memories were during that time, so too were some of her best. She vividly remembered nights sitting around a fire with Vader and Obi-wan and the 501st and the 212th while in between campaigns or during the long periods of waiting. Laughs, sarcastic remarks, teasing, crude jokes, curled up against Vader when it got too cold for her to stand. She'd felt so safe during those times despite all the danger around them.

So Ahsoka wasn't surprised that when her world lightened, she was sitting in her favorite corner of the couch in front of the fire at the cabin villa with a wool blanket over her. She was, however, surprised to see Breha in the other corner. Somehow she looked as beautiful and regal as she always did. Even with her dark hair tumbling down her back and falling into her face even despite pushing it behind her ear. Even in just a thin nightgown with a robe pulled over it.

"Breha."

"Hello, Ahsoka," Breha said. Her smile was big and met her eyes. "It's been a while."

Ahsoka was confused at first, not exactly sure what that meant. It depended on what she had been doing. On instinct, she reached out into the Force only to find it everywhere and nowhere. However, she did get her answer. The memory of fighting Sidious with Vader at her side. The ever-increasing abdomen pain that she just ignored. Vader allowing himself to be consumed by untold depths of the dark side, asking her to help him come back but not needing it in the end. Because somehow, he was a true master of the dark side. And then she'd felt another sharp pain, the call of her name, and nothing.

Oh.

"I'm dead."

Breha rolled her eyes. "You always were so dramatic. But no. You're not dead."

"But you're dead."

Breha sighed. "The word for those who have moved on from the physical plane is such a harsh word in Basic. But yes. That's true."

Ahsoka frowned but decided to just go with this for now. She'd seen, experienced, and heard of a lot of weird things over the course of her life. This didn't even make the top five weird. All those things had something to do with one Anakin Skywalker. But just because she was going with it didn't mean she didn't have questions—many of them.

"So, where are we?"

"You have just temporarily been brought to a plane that transcends the physical world and the limitations of physical bodies while your own body recovers," Breha replied.

"Okay…" Ahsoka paused. "Is this real, or is this my comatose brain giving me weird dreams?"

"You once told me that the Jedi believe that when a person dies, they return to the Force. Alderaanians say that we return back to Mother Alderaan. I always thought they were the same thing. So what do you think?"

Ahsoka thought her mind was playing tricks on her. Or maybe not a trick, but piecing together a bunch of fond memories. Yet, Ahsoka didn't even think her brain could come up with such a perfect recreation of her dear friend, right down to the small mole next to the woman's lip. Ahsoka didn't have the energy to ponder over such an existential question, though. So she put whether this was real or a memory out her mind and decided to let whatever it was be for now.

She shifted the blankets on her and crossed to the other side of the couch. She rested her arms in the woman's lap and then laid her head down with her face in the woman's stomach.

"I miss you, Breha."

The woman ran a soothing hand over the side of her montrals, something Ahsoka allowed few people to do in her life.

"I know. But as much as it would bring me joy, you can't stay here with me. The galaxy awaits you. The war may be over, and Palpatine gone, but people still need you."

"I'm not sure they do. Not as much as you say they do anyway."

She'd had a vision of her death after all. She'd been prepared to embrace her death. It was only by some miracle or action that she wasn't aware of that she'd circumvented it.

"Is this about your vision?" Breha asked.

Ahsoka started to ask how the woman knew about that, but well... Whatever this was, it wasn't a stretch that Breha knew about that.

"Somewhat?"

"On Alderaan, every future ruler is faced with a vision before they make their ascension to the throne. They aren't visions of the future. Not complete ones anyway. They are tests of character."

"And how's that?"

"They test you by asking you to confront your fears and sacrifice the things you cherish the most. Only by showing the willingness to do what is hardest do Alderaan rulers prove they are worthy to rule. You don't fear death. I fussed at you enough about your reckless stunts to know that," Breha said, poking Ahsoka in the side. "But you do fear leaving behind the people who you believe love and need you the most. Your children. _Vader_." Breha said Vader's name in that pointed tone that she always said his name. "By being willing to leave them behind to do something that would help them more than the hurt it would cause, that would help the galaxy despite hurting the people you cared for the most, you proved that you were worthy."

"Worthy of what?" Ahsoka asked.

Breha smirked. "You'll just have to wake up and see."

"I don't feel worthy. I feel like… I feel selfish. I know what Vader's done to people. I know they'll be angry about our relationship. All facets of it," Ahsoka said with a sigh.

She imagined she might be forgiven for being savvy enough to get him on her side. Still, many people would have a lot to say about sleeping with the man and having his child during the war. And for good reason. Goodness knew she'd have a lot of questions if one of her top generals or commanders came to her with this kind of thing. Questions about whether such a relationship put people in danger. Questions about their true intentions. Their loyalties.

"Do you think I did the right thing? With Vader. Be honest," Ahsoka added. She didn't have to, though. Breha had _always_ been honest with her thoughts about everything. Not just Vader.

"At one point, I would have said I don't know. I probably would have leaned toward no. But now that I've had a chance to watch you both, I've realized that he is the harsh Alderaan winter, and you are the unyielding mountain that will not bow to the storm. Together, you create the rivers that help sustain our beautiful home."

Ahsoka laughed. "You would have been a great Jedi. That sounds like some proverbial stang they'd say."

"Well, I heard they were pretty wise."

"About some things, Breha. About some things," Ahsoka muttered as she started to close her eyes.

"Oh, no! You don't get to leave me yet," Breha declared. "I know for a fact you fell into bed with that man. You owe me details."

"Breha."

"Nope. You've got a long life ahead of you. I can't wait that long for the juicy details. You promised!"

Ahsoka hadn't promised anything, but she figured she could indulge the woman and sat up. She took a cup of hot chocolate that had appeared in the woman's hands before divulging the details Breha so craved. When she was done with that, she told Breha how Winter was doing ("She's going to make a wonderful queen when she turns nineteen."), how her pregnancy went ("You need better subordinate officers if they didn't notice you were pregnant, even if you were trying to hide it," she'd said, unimpressed.), the birth ("Test or not, Ahsoka Tano, I would never let you hear the end of it for doing something so recklessly stupid if I could. And don't tell me about saving the galaxy. It still stands."), and everything else she hadn't gotten the chance to tell the woman in the last year.

By the time she was done, both she and Breha were sitting curled up in the middle of the couch facing each other. Eyes heavy with sleep, Ahsoka placed a hand on Breha's cheek and said, "You won't be here when I wake up. Will you?"

"Quite the contrary. You won't be here when you wake up," Breha said, placing her own hand on Ahsoka's face. Breha smiled. "Send Winter and Bail my love. Tell them that I'm with Mother Alderaan, and we shall be reunited one day."

Ahsoka didn't answer, but she got the feeling Breha didn't expect her to as she closed her eyes. Or rather, the reality around her darkened, and her body began to feel achy. Then she was lying on what felt like a soft, comfortable bed. Certainly more comfortable than the ones she'd been sleeping in for the last year, including at the Rebellion Base.

Though she'd clearly been resting, she still felt tired. Like she needed a few days to recuperate. On instinct, she went through the motions she was taught to go through during the war when waking from unconsciousness. First, make sure all your limbs were there. Then figure out what she could feel. The soft bed. A weight sitting just next to her. With that done, she opened her eyes to assess where she was.

The first thing she saw was Vader sitting next to her, carefully watching her wake.

"Vader," was the first thing she said in greeting.

"Ahsoka," he replied.

He looked… like himself. Dark blond hair in neat disarray, wearing attire that was clearly based on the suit but not the suit and without a mask and helmet or all the clunky armor. And he looked exhausted. She could only imagine the chaos he was dealing with now that Palpatine was dead.

Ahsoka frowned at that.

Palpatine was dead. They had won. And she'd collapsed afterward. Before she could tell him about Mé. Before she could tell him that Luke, Leia, and Winter were on-planet taking care of said newborn.

"How long has it been?" she asked first. There might not be anything to panic about yet.

"Since what?" Vader asked.

Ahsoka frowned but understood why he asked. He wanted to make sure she remembered.

"Since you killed Palpatine and I collapsed. I think," Ahsoka said, unsure. She could be missing something.

"A little over a week."

Kriff.

Ahsoka hurried to try to sit herself up, but Vader held a hand to her chest.

"You just woke up from sedation."

"Yeah. And except for feeling like I got hit by a speeder, I'm fine."

"I'm not sure on what planet that's fine."

"It's an improvement from before. I felt like I'd gotten hit by a star destroyer before," Ahsoka said, falling into the easy banter she always fell into with Vader. Then she remembered why she felt that way. She tried to swat Vader's hand away. But he was unyielding. "Vader, I… The thing I needed to tell you. I…"

"If this is you telling me that you were pregnant, gave birth right before you confronted Palpatine, and left our newborn daughter with the twins and Winter in a docking bay levels below Imperial City, I discovered all that already," he said, sparing her the trouble. "They're safe. Mé's right next to us, in fact."

Ahsoka almost sat up to see for herself, more than anything wanting to take the baby into her arms that she thought she'd never get to hold again. But she resisted the urge. Mé was fine for now. Ahsoka needed to deal with this first.

Vader's feelings were being carefully restrained by him in the Force, kept away from their warm bond. After years of hiding all his weakness and constantly being aware of his emotions to protect them from Sidious, perhaps it was time to let him let some of that restraint go.

"Go ahead. Lay it on me. Might as well get this over with," Ahsoka said.

When he didn't immediately answer, she sent something like resigned reassurance across the bond, bracing herself for Vader's infamous temper. What she got wasn't anger. Not totally. It was there but in the midst of a lot more complicated feelings. Sadness. Hurt. Something that felt like the beginning of betrayal. Somehow, that was worse than if he was just angry at her.

"You're not angry?"

He gave her a pointed look, allowing the anger she sensed to project and briefly overtake his other feelings.

"Oh, I'm plenty angry at you," he assured her. Then he sighed as he brought the anger back under his control. "But that's not going to do either of us any good right now. I just want to know why you didn't tell me." Before Ahsoka could answer that, he continued, "Actually, I already know the answer to that. I get it. I don't have a great track record when it comes to these things. And I know you don't exactly trust me. But more importantly, why didn't you tell anyone else? What in Sith hell was going through your head when you decided to come here, knowing you were almost due, give birth by yourself in a ship, and then come to fight Palpatine? Do you know all the things that could have gone wrong? All the things that almost _did_ go wrong?"

There was a lot in that to answer, but Ahsoka latched onto one particular thing and blurted out without thinking, "I trust you! What gave you the idea that I didn't?"

Ahsoka knew it was a stupid question before he pressed the memories against her mind of her explicitly saying so or him saying so and her not contradicting him.

"Right. Because that used to be true," Ahsoka said as she began to sit up again.

This time Vader let her, assisting her by propping pillows up behind her to support her.

"Used to be?" Vader asked when she was settled.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "Vader, all things considered with our history, you think I would have been comfortable sleeping with you if I didn't think I could trust you?"

"Wouldn't be the first relationship with a woman I'd been involved in built on lies, secrets, and mistrust. Even if we denied it."

"Idiot," Ahsoka muttered as she reached over and grabbed his arm to pull him closer to her.

He caught himself before he could fall on her.

"Always with the name-calling."

Ahsoka ignored him and said, "I trust you. I trust you with everything precious to me. If I didn't, I would have been a lot less willing to leave our children behind to fight next to you while expecting to meet my death." She cupped his face with her hand. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want to put you in danger."

"So to protect me. That's no better."

"No. I… I've been very unfair to you in the past."

"Unfair. You haven't—"

"I let you apologize to me. Let me do the same, okay?" When he'd closed his mouth, she continued, "You've always been so magnificent to me. Since I walked off that ship on Christophsis and laid eyes on you. And the reason I was so angry with you was that you shattered all my expectations of you. Expectations that you didn't ask for and that weren't fair. And even when they were fair, they were expectations that were unfair to ask you to bear alone. Somehow, over all these years, you'd managed to hide your true plans, the twins, and me from Sidious. Funneled resources to the Rebellion behind his back. Ran his war while using it to our advantage to get allies in place.

"All while what you really wanted was just to have your family with you. All the while, worried not just for our safety but that you would let me down again. Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for it. But it was unfair to ask you to carry all that alone. So not telling you about Mé… it wasn't that I didn't trust you, but that I didn't want you to break beneath the burden and stress of yet another secret or expectation to live up to. To make you even more vulnerable to Sidious than you already were. Can you forgive me for that, my heart?"

He closed his eyes and leaned into her hand. Then he took her hand in his and brought it to his mouth. "There's nothing to forgive, my heart."

Still, Ahsoka felt a gentle wave of appreciation and gratitude across their bond. For recognizing his burdens. For recognizing his own sacrifices. For recognizing his attempts to make things right. Despite all his faults and failures.

Cries from Ahsoka's left immediately caught their attention. With speed Ahsoka usually only saw Vader display on the battlefield, he made his way around the bed and to the bassinet. He reached in and lifted Mé out, gently rocking and hushing her to soothe her cries. For a moment, Ahsoka wasn't sure how to reconcile this man in front of her, a doting, caring father, with the man she knew would kill without hesitation or losing sleep over it. Then again, duplicitous natures weren't just reserved for Vader, Ahsoka supposed. It was just incredibly stark with him.

When she didn't stop her whining, arms flailing as she geared up for the full-blown shrill cries Ahsoka remembered from when Luke and Leia were this age, Vader set her into the crook of his left arm.

"It's about time for your next bottle. Isn't it?"

"Give her here. I'll do it."

Vader looked at her and said, "You just woke up. Your body needs to finish healing."

"I've been asleep for a week. I'm fine. Besides, I'm made for this, even when I'm tired and still healing. People who just gave birth do it all over the galaxy," Ahsoka insisted.

Vader still looked like he wanted to argue.

Ahsoka twisted her lips. "Vader, give me my baby, right now."

He relented, sitting back on the edge of the bed and handing Mé over to her.

The gown she wore wasn't at all conducive to breastfeeding. Seeing her struggle with it, Vader helped her take off the offending item and readjusted the blankets to keep her warm. Once she'd resettled, Ahsoka managed to get Mé to latch on, and instantly, the girl's frustrated whining and squirming seized. Something about it suddenly made this real. It was real before. But before, she'd been sure her days were numbered. Desperately wanting to raise this child. Desperately wanting her not to be raised in a galaxy under a government that would hunt and kill her for her abilities. But never daring to hope she'd be able to have both.

And finally, after years of being afraid that Palpatine was lurking just over her shoulder ready to ruin everything, after years of him actually ruining everything, Ahsoka felt she could breathe. It was overwhelming. However, it wasn't only her own emotions. Something was coming from Vader. Something like he was feeling a myriad of emotions and wasn't sure which to settle on.

She looked up to ask him what the problem was but then found herself in his arms. He was conscious of Mé, though, holding Ahsoka in a way to not disturb her.

"I almost lost you," he said, shaky voice barely above a whisper. "I thought you were going to die. And I didn't know what I was going to do afterward."

Because he already knew what not to do. He already knew that to lash out at the galaxy would have been to tarnish her memory the way he'd help to tarnish Padmé's. Ahsoka knew he wasn't admitting that anytime soon, though. If ever.

"Of course, I wasn't going anywhere." Because even though she'd thought she was going to die before, it seemed so clear in hindsight that the Force had a lot more for them to do. That they would always be better as a team. "Remember? You're stuck with me, Skyguy."

That should have soothed him. Should have lightened the mood. But instead, Vader let her go and pulled back to look at her with a solemn, contemplative expression.

"What?" Ahsoka asked.

"During the Clone War, after your trial. You wanted to leave the Order. But I stopped you. I made you stay."

"You didn't make me do anything," Ahsoka replied, not exactly sure where he was going with this.

"Either way, if I hadn't convinced you to stay, you would have left. It was selfish of me to ask that of you, knowing that's not what you wanted. Especially given how much you struggled afterward. I know what it's like to be asked to put your own wellbeing and health aside for the sake of people who probably didn't even deserve it. To do everything people asked of you, and it still not being enough. But I…" Vader sighed, running a hand over his face.

"You have control issues."

Vader glared. "Not how I would have put it."

"But, it's true."

"Regardless, I should have let you make the choice to leave if that's what you wanted."

Truthfully, after a decade past, Ahsoka wasn't sure what she'd wanted back then. Hindsight had a way of contextualizing things. She had wanted to leave. That much was certain. But she'd also wanted to stay. She had been just as afraid at the prospect of leaving the only home she'd known as she had been of staying after such a betrayal. She'd almost made the choice right there in front of the High Council. As they gave her their empty platitudes and offered to make her a knight as compensation. So she'd overlook their betrayal. But she'd been tired after a long couple of weeks and just wanted somewhere to rest and think things through without being in the middle of a crisis. It wasn't a luxury she'd gotten often. For once, she'd taken it.

"What's done is done," Ahsoka said with a shrug. "No use dwelling on it."

"That is true," Vader agreed. "But it doesn't mean I have to make the same mistake."

Ahsoka furrowed her brow at that.

"You told me that the only reason you stay and deal with this political and social mess of a galaxy is for me. Because I couldn't leave it alone."

When Ahsoka said that, she'd been trying to stop him from jumping headfirst into a fight with Palpatine that they weren't ready to have. She guessed that didn't make it any less true.

"But Palpatine's gone now. You don't have to stay. You don't owe the galaxy anything. You can leave everyone else to duke out what to do with the Empire now. Go map the Unknown Regions and Wild Space. Take the children with you. I… I'd still have to make sure Palpatine doesn't have any more contingencies, but then I can catch up with you. Leave it all behind," he suggested.

Vader pressed his sincerity upon the bond to prove he meant it.

Ahsoka couldn't say that it wasn't tempting. She'd been fighting for half her life. It would be nice to leave it all behind and do whatever she wanted. To go wherever she wanted without having to worry about getting back to anything. She also knew she wouldn't be able to in good conscience. Neither would Vader. The wondering would eventually drive them right back here. They were too close to the center of it all to have the luxury of leaving it all behind.

"Sounds nice. But I honestly think I'd miss all this. It's the only thing I know. Besides, knowing us, we'd discover new planets and end up starting a new Empire or Republic or something anyway," Ahsoka joked.

That got a laugh out of Vader. Not a cruel or scornful one. Just a simple one to show he was amused. She hadn't heard that from him in a long time.

Then he asked, "Are you sure?"

A simple question. Yet Ahsoka got the feeling that it was more than that. His way of asking if this was what she really wanted. If she knew what she was signing up for. And that even if she didn't, that she'd be willing to put up with whatever within reason resulted from this choice. A challenge even. And in nearly fourteen years of knowing him, she'd never backed down from one of those. She didn't plan to start now.

"I'm sure," Ahsoka affirmed before looking back down at Mé, who was no longer sucking but just staring up at her. When she tried to move Mé away, she began to cry. When Ahsoka put her back, she settled right back to staring up at Ahsoka without sucking.

Ahsoka sighed. "You can't just sit there and stare up at me, Mé Breha Skywalker."

"It's a good view," Vader said, running a gloved hand over the girl's white hair. "Speaking of that. We need to talk about her name."

"It's already decided. I'm not changing my mind."

"It's not decided. There's no paperwork yet," Vader said. "You named her after your ex-girlfriend."

"To be fair, it's spelled differently."

"Which brings me to my next point. You named her after my dead wife?"

"She was my friend. And, also, to be fair, it's just the end of her name."

"Fine. But Skywalker? I thought your culture gave their children their mother's last names."

"They do. But when have either of us ever cared about tradition?"

They halfheartedly went back and forth over it for a while before Vader conceded on the grounds that she gave birth by herself in a ship; she got to name the baby whatever she wanted. By that time, Mé was burped, changed, and lying asleep in Ahsoka's arms. Vader also remembered that he'd left Bail Organa in the public sitting area with Winter.

Despite Vader's insistence otherwise, Ahsoka passed Mé to him while she put on a white and silver silk kaftan that cinched at the waist. Comfortable but presentable. The only reason she cared that much was to respect Bail's modest core world sensibilities. Otherwise, she just would have had Vader bring him into the room.

Honestly. Humans. She'd lived with the man and his wife for seven years. Bail was practically family.

Ahsoka contemplated leaving Mé. But not only did she not want to let the baby out her sight, she also knew it was time to come totally clean. That meant not hiding the fact that in addition to Vader being her informant and coconspirator, he'd become her lover, and they'd had a child. That was going to be a tense and awkward conversation with a lot of people, especially with High Command. But Ahsoka hadn't helped kill a tyrant only to continue to be a slave to the secrets said tyrant had forced her to necessarily keep.

They passed by the twins' room on the way, but both had fallen asleep, something Vader said they'd been randomly doing in the middle of the day as of late. Ahsoka wasn't surprised. It had been an exhausting few months—an exhausting few days.

Bail noticed as soon as Ahsoka stepped into the room with Mé lying across her arm and Vader standing next to her.

"Ahsoka," he said with more than a little awe and confusion in his tone.

"Aunt 'Soka! You're awake," Winter said, running across the room to hug her.

"It's good to see you too, princess. Do you mind giving us a minute to talk with your father?"

Winter seemed reluctant, but Bail cut in. "I'm not going anywhere, my darling."

Reassured, for now, Winter disappeared behind them. Once Ahsoka sensed the girl's cheerful presence was gone, she turned to Bail with a tired smile.

"We have a lot to talk about, my friend."

* * *

**AN: **1) I'm going to pre-empt this question before it's even asked. I know a lot of you are going to be like, why in the memory/dream/otherworld plane did Ahsoka see Breha and not Padmé? A lot of reasons, but mostly because Ahsoka has moved on from Padmé. She'll always miss her, but she's accepted that Padmé's not there and has long stopped caring about whether she'd approve of things. But Breha is recent and with everything going on, Ahsoka hasn't had to sit with her death for long and she's not quite over it yet. Also, things change, people move on, and what Pamé would have done or thought about all this doesn't matter because, as has been a bit of a theme in this story, they have to keep living for the living.

2) Also, the question came up why Ahsoka specifically didn't tell anyone she was pregnant. There was no room to really fit it into this chapter outright so I will tell you. The reason boils down to security and trust. Ahsoka still has very deeply engrained trust issues even if she's pretty much gotten over that with Vader. Part of the reason she was so effective in the Rebellion is that people saw her as almost invincible. Whether or not that was true, it likely effectively detered anyone that might have had ill will to her or spies in the Rebellion. To announce the pregnancy was to announce that vulnerability (note that she says her balance was off, she couldn't use her lightsaber, and she was tiring easily). And she was not sure who might take advantage of that. So she didn't say anything. I implied that she didn't plan on hiding Mé when she was born. Just the pregnancy. I try not to spell everything out in works. I do address the things that need to be addressed while also assuming that my readers can and want to read between the lines and figure some things out. But... I got enough questions about it that I decided to answer this one outright.

3) Look at Vader. Learning to let go. He's glad Ahsoka turned down the out he gave her, but the fact that he even offered it and would have dealt with it. He's sorting out his priorities... or learning to anyway.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, favorite, and follow. I appreciate the support and your insights.


	83. Safe

**Chapter Eighty-Three: Safe**

The conversation with Bail was long, awkward, and sometimes downright accusatory. Not directly accusatory. But Ahsoka recognized the disapproving in his tone like she'd recognized it in Breha's. Ahsoka couldn't say she blamed Bail. She'd always made sure never to directly lie to anyone over the years. Always deflecting or letting people come to their own conclusions. Always forthright that she had her secrets, secrets that always created a mystical allure about her. Secrets that protected her and her children. But secrets nonetheless.

Ahsoka was glad she'd gotten Vader to leave the room with Mé at Bail's request to speak with her alone. He would not have taken kindly to the veiled accusations against her, no matter how deserved they may have been. Bail wasn't wrong in his characterization. That it couldn't be ignored that she'd gotten Vader to her side not just because it benefited the Rebellion but also because it benefitted her. Still, much like his dead wife, Bail accepted the situation for what it was, that nothing he said or did was going to change it, and that Vader was something they were going to have to deal with. Ahsoka had never steered the Rebellion wrong. Even if the knowledge of her relationship with Vader re-contextualized things she'd done in the past, she was the only way forward. She had his support.

For a brief moment, it felt like Breha was in the room again. And in that moment, Ahsoka almost told Bail that the woman had sent her love, but she sensed it wasn't yet the time. Instead, she tasked him with the job of gathering the rest of the High Command to come to Imperial Center. The sooner they began negotiating terms with the Empire, the better.

Vader conveniently re-entered the room at that point, making Ahsoka wonder if he had been listening the entire time.

"You'll have plenty of time to gather the best and brightest of your people," he assured Bail. "The doctor says she needs at least a month to recuperate. Ideally, a month and a half."

"Vader, you can't keep me cooped up here like a prisoner for that long."

"I'll have to get Sabé to show you pictures of my prisons if you think this place is any comparison. Besides, I'm only saying that you aren't doing anything until a doctor signs off on your recovery."

"What am I supposed to do until then?" Ahsoka asked.

"Rest."

"And what are you going to do until then?"

"Run the Empire. It'll give me a chance to weed out any more of Palpatine's supporters from the military while Sabé makes sure the Security Bureaus and what's left of the Senate Guard check out. In the meantime, I've delegated part of the 501st to Commander Rex's use for your security."

Ahsoka didn't miss Bail's concerned look, and neither did Vader, who rolled his eyes.

"Relax. I have no plans on using this time to backstab the Rebellion. I announced our truce to the entire galaxy, didn't I?"

Bail still didn't look put at ease, but he didn't voice any more concerns.

Somehow, Ahsoka didn't die of sheer boredom over the next couple of weeks. Despite being under practical house arrest until she was well, she managed to get daily reports from Bail and Mon about the Rebellion: the terms they were discussing for an official treaty, the things they were willing to budge on, the things they weren't sure about, and the things they absolutely would not cede to the Empire.

Ahsoka had half the mind to ask Vader if he'd gotten started talking with any Imperial leaders about what they wanted out of all this. But she wasn't supposed to be doing any work at all. If she asked him about anything, he'd figure out she was in daily contact with Bail and Mon and her generals, who were coordinating the movements of her fleets across the galaxy. And then he'd be even more overbearing than he was already being. It was probably for the best that she just didn't fight him too hard. The less she pushed boundaries, the more he'd lighten up. In theory. Truthfully, the fact that she didn't have the energy to push back at him probably proved his point about her needing rest. Not to mention, the doctor was on his side.

Instead, Ahsoka spent her time with the twins and Winter, who Bail left in Ahsoka's care until everything with the Rebellion was settled. They gave her the grand tour of not just the penthouse but the entire high-rise building. Conference rooms, the kitchens, where Rex and the rest of her security had set up a base of operations, and many more nooks and crannies they'd discovered when Vader wasn't looking. Sometimes they got on the holonet and started on the list of bookmarked projects the twins had saved to do that they hadn't had the resources to do living on a Rebel base. Or that Ahsoka hadn't been able to carve out the time to help them with or that she'd just been too tired to do during her pregnancy in the last year.

She spent time with May when the human woman wasn't getting briefs from the Imperial Security Bureau. May had been specially appointed by Vader and Sabé to be their temporary (maybe permanent) press secretary. Ahsoka also got a few comm calls from her inner circle who were spread across the galaxy, keeping things stable until an official new government was born.

She saw Rex and Sabé often. And when they weren't off-planet making sure Palpatine's contingency was dismantled, Obi-wan, and Cal came to see her. Diya, who'd had a shorter recovery period for her new leg, was a frequent visitor and was always happy to take Mé off her hands to let Ahsoka get some sleep when Vader was off running the Empire. Also, to complain that Ahsoka not only misled her away from figuring out that Vader's identity, but also that Ahsoka wasn't the twins' biological mother.

In an act of generosity that Ahsoka wasn't sure how Vader mustered, he both designed and engineered Diya a new prosthetic leg when she complained about the one she'd gotten. Though, when Ahsoka thought about it, it might have been Vader's pride more than anything. When he'd commented that the only good thing about the prosthetic was the that it was indistinguishable from her organic leg, Diya offhandedly but dismissively asked if he could do better. In typical Vader fashion, his response _was _to do better.

Naturally, Ahsoka also spent a lot of time taking care of Mé. Already, she could tell the girl had a boundless curiosity about her—even more than Luke had. Always very alert and aware when she was awake. Already struggling to gain the strength to control her head to see what made certain sounds. Constantly and reflexively prodding at her family members in the Force or just generally reaching out with it. Ahsoka didn't remember the twins being so natural with the Force other than the bond she'd shared with them. But Ahsoka also hadn't touched the Force much, if at all, when they were young. Now, Mé had four people around her constantly accessing the Force.

Sometimes Mé went into screaming fits that Ahsoka hadn't been sure of the reason for until Vader revealed she was overstimulated. That the planet sometimes got too loud for her delicate senses. Those times, Vader would take Mé, lay on her his chest, and wrap his cool, dark presence around her like a soundproof barrier. It helped to lessen the overstimulation until she fell asleep.

But except for those times, when it seemed she'd only let Vader comfort her, this go-round with a newborn seemed easy. Ahsoka wasn't sure whether that was since she didn't have two babies competing for her attention or because she wasn't a teenager without a support system. Probably a lot more of the latter. When the twins had first been born, she struggled with suddenly being relieved of all her Jedi duties and the boredom it came with. The ever-present fear that the Empire would find them. Or that Vader would find them too soon.

Now, with Palpatine gone, on good terms with Vader, and people around to help, Ahsoka felt safe. Like she didn't always have to look over her shoulder or be so aware of every small thing that tripped all her senses. She hadn't felt like that in a decade. Longer actually. It was a nice feeling.

Towards the end of her recovery month, Bail returned to Imperial Center with Mon in tow. The rest of the Rebellion leaders would return when Ahsoka was ready to welcome them herself. Not that she didn't trust Vader not to hurt them. But she definitely didn't trust him not to indulge in a little entertainment by purposefully intimidating them when they arrived. Entertainment that no one but him would find funny.

She persuaded Rex to let them up to the apartment to begin going over the details discussed with the rest of High Command and some of the other Rebellion senators. They were at the end of their meeting—or, rather, Vader would be back soon—when Ahsoka sensed there was something left undiscussed. The glance Bail and Mon exchanged validated her senses.

"Is there anything else we need to talk about?"

Mon sighed.

"There's no easy way to bring this up to you, Ahsoka, but there's one more term that High Command wants you to consider. It's about Vader."

Ahsoka should have known that discussion hadn't ended with Bail's reluctant acceptance of her arrangement, both personal and professional, with the Sith.

"I know they have their reservations about allowing him to remain Emperor. But I think you'll find him somewhat amiable to some of the checks and restrictions on his power that you want to put in place. It's going to take a little wrangling on my part. But he'll mostly come around. I don't think Vader's as interested in a lot of the things that come with being Emperor as he thinks he would be."

"It's not about that. It is but…" Mon exchanged another look with Bail, who sighed. Mon continued, "They want more than just him stepping down as Emperor. They want him to step down as Emperor and submit to a trial for war crimes in the new government. Actually, they want quite a few people tried, but Vader in particular. And I can't say I disagree with them."

Ahsoka's first instinct was to tell them that it wasn't happening. But she was no longer the girl who trained under him and saw some of Vader's darker tendencies and brushed them aside. No longer the girl who ignored the whispers and rumors about her master as baseless and fearful just because he was different. If she brushed off their concerns, it would make her no better than the tyrant they'd been living under for the past decade. She always knew she'd have to face this eventually.

So she collected all her conflicting emotions and set her expression into something pleasant but unyielding.

"We've been keeping track of every crime and every atrocity since the inception of the Empire. They're significant, to say the least, and we're probably missing many. Certainly not outweighed by what he might have been doing behind the scenes to help our cause."

"I know better than anyone what Vader has done over the years. And I can't say I blame people for wanting him tried nor that I condone any of Vader's atrocities over the years," she finally admitted. "But I can defend him."

"Ahsoka," Bail said patiently. "You can't—"

"I can. He's more useful to us alive and free than he is captive or dead. The last decade has proven that. We would have been looking at another decade of organizing, at least, and more years of fighting after that without him."

"He's also more dangerous alive and free. The last decade has proven that too," Bail said, reminding Ahsoka of something Breha would have said.

"I know, but—"

"Billions, probably trillions, of beings have suffered under his hand. You may be able to argue that it was Palpatine's orders and influence. But it doesn't erase that he's been the face and enforcer of Palpatine's Empire. That he benefited from it so that the Empire fell right into line behind him with hardly any hiccups when Palpatine was killed. To most, he's no different than Palpatine." said Mon.

"Then we'll let him prove that most of it was Palpatine. Give him a chance to prove that he can be their champion."

"They already know that. That champion turned on them and became their tormentor. Or does Anakin Skywalker plan to keep hiding behind that mask to the public?" Mon asked.

Another thing Ahsoka knew wouldn't go quietly.

Mon continued, "People want him to suffer like they have. To face humiliation. And last but not least, they want him _dead_."

Ahsoka understood the sentiment. She spent a decade plotting against Palpatine and intending to kill him for everything he'd done to her. Turning Anakin Skywalker against her. The demise of the Jedi Order. The threat he posed to her children. And goodness knew that if Sidious had turned around and given her an offer of peace, she would have never trusted it. She would have turned it down and kept going until he was dead. She couldn't blame people for feeling the same way about Vader. Wouldn't she have felt the same way about him if not for her history with him?

Time for another tactic.

"Fine then. But you know if we try Vader, we have to try everyone under him with a modicum of control. The remaining Joint Chiefs, many of the moffs," Ahsoka said, looking out the large reinforced glass window that covered the wall to her right. "And me."

Ahsoka didn't take her eyes away from the horizon outside, the sun more than halfway done setting at this point. She didn't need to see their expressions. Their shock reverberated through the Force.

"Try you. Ahsoka," Bail sighed.

"It's only fair, right?" Ahsoka asked, looking back at them. "How many Imperials have I killed with families who were just doing their jobs? Because they got a glimpse of me and might have gone back to their superiors and talked? How many people died as collateral damage because of this war that I started to destroy Palpatine and his supporters? If putting Vader to trial is only fair to our side, putting me to trial is only fair to the Imperials. They probably want to see me suffer for the deaths of their loved ones and soldiers, some just trying to make ends meet for their families. Even if that's not true, I colluded with Vader. You might call me an accomplice to all his deeds."

"That's a very different situation, and you know it," Mon retorted, clearly unimpressed.

Ahsoka shrugged. "From a certain point of view, maybe."

Silence fell between them. A silence Ahsoka knew she would have to break, but she let Bail and Mon stew on her offer first.

Finally, she said, "You know, there is less studied and well-hidden history that the millennia-long conflict between the Jedi and the Sith started because of the Jedi. According to that history, there was a large group of Jedi that thought that their way, through the light side, was the _only_ correct way to serve and use the Force. Another group of Jedi, a smaller group, believed that the Force could be used and served by way of the dark side. They left when the unfair treatment by their brethren became too much to withstand. Until then, there were no abilities or practices that were strictly light or strictly dark. You could even say it wasn't even a concept. But the point of this story isn't to argue Force philosophy with you.

"The point is that the conflict between them got so bad that the Jedi who practiced exclusively using the light deemed the "dark" Jedi a threat and had them all killed. Those who managed to escape the genocide became the first Sith. For a millennia they've continued to find those Jedi on the fringes, the Force users that the Jedi shun to pass down their hate and pain. And that hate and pain only magnifies every generation of Sith. So much so that the prevailing belief was that history was a fairytale that the Sith made up to made the Jedi look bad. But as someone that used to be a Jedi… I can't say there aren't some rings of truth in it. Even though I'm sure the dark Jedi had their hand in instigating the conflict. Either way, that fight has been going for a millennia, and just about every major galactic conflict in history's past can be boiled down to a back and forth tug-of-war between the Sith and the Jedi."

Ahsoka looked over to where Mé laid on a thick quilted blanket under an activity gym. She was cooing around the fist in her mouth while the other waved toward the bright hanging toys above her.

Ahsoka continued, "This has to end. We have a chance to end this millennia-old blood battle, and Vader is willing. But if you insist on this, we're only going to continue this cycle of war. Even if you managed to win against his might, if you take a father from his Force-sensitive children, though they might not do anything about it, that pain will be passed on to everyone they touch. And one day, I don't know when, we'll be right back fighting this same war with different faces and factions."

"And if we do insist," Mon said, not disguising where she fell on the matter, "If we decide we want no part in this Empire and to continue this fight, where will you stand?"

The tension in the room rose. Ahsoka had been grappling with and preparing for this question for a long time. But when she decided she'd bear the burden of Vader's sins, she'd been prepared for the possibility that the Rebellion might turn on her. She knew she might have to face their scorn. She knew exactly what she'd do if they did. But Mon and Bail didn't need to know the details.

Sensing Vader's presence getting closer, Ahsoka turned back to look at Mon, and said, "I'm not an enemy to you, Mon. I'm not an enemy to the Rebellion. Don't make me into one."

The front door opened and in walked Vader, in most of his suit.

"Ahsoka," he began while setting the mask and helmet on the coffee table.

"We were just finishing up," Ahsoka said. She gave him a cheeky smile.

"You should have never gotten started. When I said no work, I meant it."

"Vader, I've been sitting around the apartment doing nothing for weeks. One meeting isn't going to kill me. Especially when the doctor is just going to sign me off as recovered tomorrow."

"She's going to evaluate whether you've fully recovered or not. There's a difference. And you know as well as I that you haven't been sitting around doing nothing. I know you've been getting and reading daily reports. I should have known you'd push the boundaries of your allowance to have a physical meeting." As he said all this, he knelt down in front of Mé, rubbing the girl's belly. "Your mother still doesn't know when to just listen."

"Boundaries? Anakin Skywalker, I'm not your child," Ahsoka reminded. "I know and can decide the limits of my own body."

"Of course, you're not," Vader said, now standing with Mé in his arms.

Ahsoka guessed that he planned on staying in the suit a while longer. Now that he was holding her, Mé wasn't going to let him put her down until she was asleep again.

"Nor do I doubt your ability to know and decide the limits of your own body. I do doubt your ability not to ignore those limits and speed right past them at light speed. Or need I remind you that—"

"Yeah. I ran into battle barely two hours after giving birth," Ahsoka finished.

"Luke and Leia said it was more like an hour."

Exasperated, she asked, "Are you ever going to let me live that down?"

Vader gave her that look like he was trying to decide if she was just stupid or totally heedless. Ahsoka supposed it was fair since she hadn't been cleared by her doctor yet, and he was holding their month-old daughter in his arms.

"Whatever," she said, turning back to Bail and Mon. "We were finished anyway. I'll get the details to you about the peace conference tomorrow when I'm cleared by my doctor."

"_If_ you're cleared by your doctor," Vader said.

"Ignore him," Ahsoka said, getting to her feet to show the two out.

Mon and Bail looked a little wide-eyed, but she supposed anyone would be after seeing Darth Vader being a fussy and concerned partner and a doting father. It still left her in awe sometimes too.

Bail had already gotten to the elevator across the foyer with Winter when Mon abruptly turned around. Ahsoka paused closing the door.

"Ahsoka, when I said all that. I wasn't implying—" Mon sighed. "I won't pretend to understand the position you've put yourself in. But I don't think any less of you because of your and Vader's…" Mon trailed off. Eyes looking past Ahsoka to where Vader could just be seen sitting on the couch with Mé in his arms and Luke and Leia on either side of him.

"I know," Ahsoka replied softly, saving the red-haired woman from having to finish. "And I know it won't be fair to just let him get off without some kind of consequence. I'll think of something."

Mon nodded and smiled before leaving.

"Mom," said Luke when he noticed her come back in the room. "Can we please order from that world of curry restaurant we had a couple of weeks ago? I've been dreaming about that red curry fish!"

"Luke, you _always_ dream about food," Leia reminded him.

A light ripple rang through the Force where Mé had touched it in her reflexive explorations.

"See? Mé agrees with me," Leia declared.

"No, she—"

"Don't bicker. You'll scare your sister," Vader chided.

Luke stuck his tongue out at Leia before sitting back to sulk with his arms crossed.

As she sat across from them, taking in the scene, Vader looked at her and raised an eyebrow in askance.

"What?" she asked.

"The bond. You're making it vibrate again."

Ahsoka smiled. "It's nothing."

* * *

**AN: **Hope you enjoyed. Review, favorite, and follow please! I appreciate all the support and insights.


	84. Proposal

**Chapter Eighty-Four: Proposal**

"Vader. Remember—"

"Act like I don't know you, like we haven't raised two kids together the last ten years, and like the baby you're holding in your lap during this conference isn't reaching out to me in the Force because she wants me to hold her."

Predictably, Ahsoka scowled at him.

"That's not what I've been telling you the last few days. Or what Sabé has been telling you the last few days," Ahsoka reminded.

Vader shrugged. "It accurately sums it up. And you've reminded me every day for the past week, and I haven't slipped up once."

"Slipped up once? Vader, you've already threatened to kill someone at least half a dozen times."

"They were very thinly veiled threats of severe physical injury. Not death."

"Vader."

"You know I don't have the patience for pointless squabbling by people who just want to hear themselves talk over things that have an obvious solution. Besides, I have a reputation to uphold, especially now that the suit isn't constantly doing half the job for me. I'm still not sure I can trust some of these Moffs and Imperial loyalist senators. If they think I'm getting soft, they'll think about trying to challenge my hold on the Empire."

That was part of it anyway. The other part was tactics for getting what he really wanted out of all these peace talks. An opening to introduce his plan to make Ahsoka the empress. He and Sabé had extensively gone over what he should do and say to secure that ultimate end. The goal was to make them think that he was just barely holding any restraint. Barely keeping his powers under control. Make them afraid that one day, he'd lose his sanity again and lay ruin to the galaxy. However, he also showed just enough reason, just enough political savvy, just enough hinting that he actually cared about what happened to the galaxy beyond his own selfish purposes. Enough to show that he could be reasoned with. When he wanted to anyway. That maybe with something legally binding him and his word, they might be able to control him. Or maybe convince him he was ill-suited to the some of the duties of Emperor.

"Vader."

"I didn't agree not to threaten anyone. I agreed to act like I didn't know you for the sake of," Vader paused to roll his eyes, "easing the galaxy into our relationship."

"Which you've also failed at spectacularly," Ahsoka pointed out.

Vader didn't need to see the recollection of the memory between them to know when she was talking about. That first day of the peace talks when both sides came face to face outside the battlefield after a decade had been tense. People on both sides of the room having pointed blasters and arranged attacks on the opposite side during the war. Vader and Ahsoka, though she would never admit it, found it amusing. Then, because they needed an icebreaker, Vader commented that it had been a while. It took a tremendous amount of restraint to keep a straight face, and he'd been pleased to note that Ahsoka was having the same trouble. In response, she'd agreed and then suggested they catch up later.

"_You know. Once we settle this whole civil war thing, and I'm officially not a fugitive that your government is supposed to hunt down."_

"_Right. Nothing personal, by the way."_

_They both knew that was a lie._

"_It felt personal."_

_Vader crossed his arms and shrugged. "We'll talk it out later."_

_They lasted another five seconds before a smirk broke Vader's face, and Ahsoka covered her mouth with her hand to hide her smile and muffle her chuckle. Both ignored Sabé and Obi-wan pinching the bridge of their noses and Mon and Bail both looking like they wanted to sigh and roll their eyes._

"I seem to remember you failing spectacularly, too," Vader reminded. "And it's not as though the rumors and speculation haven't already spread amongst the Rebellion and the Empire yet."

"For once, we are in agreement," Ahsoka admitted. "But Bail and Mon are right. Let's let people get used to a more reasonable and beneficent version of you that actually wants to see to the wellbeing of the galaxy. Perhaps they'll make less fuss about the Rebellion's leader being involved with Palpatine's former chief enforcer during the war. Because for anyone else, this would have been treason."

"But it's not anyone else. It's you."

"Vader."

Vader rolled his eyes again, something he'd been doing a lot over the course of the week of peace meetings. But he didn't pretend not to understand the necessity of controlling how and when information got to the public. Goodness knew people were reeling about the fact that Anakin Skywalker was his former identity. And the reaction behind that had been mixed. From people feeling betrayed that their hero—the one Jedi the media had made them trust—turned on them; to coming up with fantastical theories that he only submitted to Palpatine's rule to be able to protect the people from the true terror of the former emperor's might; to wondering if he'd ever been their hero at all considering Palpatine had always held him in such great esteem. At least, that was the case to the people with access to the holonet.

Already Vader was starting to regret lifting some of Palpatine's harshest censorship laws on the media. He had a feeling he'd regret it even more in the future. But a free press and free access to information were the foundations of a free society and all that, so Bail, Mon, May, and Sabé had convinced Ahsoka. Then she bothered him about it until he relented.

"Fine," Vader grumbled, reaching out to run a hand over Mé's soft hair. She was happily gurgling while strapped to her mother's chest.

"Come on, little one. You'll get to spend time with your dad later," Ahsoka said as she headed to the elevator.

Vader waited a few moments and went to the elevator on the opposite end of the floor to go down to the level where their peace conference would be held. By the time he got to the room, flanked by troopers and maidens alike, Ahsoka was already in her place with Mé unstrapped from her chest and turned forward to give her more room to move about. There'd been a short debate on whether Ahsoka would be seen with Mé at all, given all the questions that would come about her existence. In the end, they agreed that Ahsoka would have had to explain it anyway if the war had gone as long as they'd planned. And no one would think twice about wanting to keep Mé close being that she was on a planet that just a month ago would have dubbed her a fugitive.

The room still went quiet as he entered, though he got less surprised and disbelieving looks than he had a week ago. When the room moved to stand, he waved a dismissive hand and said, "I'm in no mood for pointless pleasantries. The sooner we get started, the sooner we might be able to come to an agreement on a functioning government so I can get back to more important matters of ruling this Empire. If someone would like to brief us on where we left off yesterday."

He expected the pointed nudge he got from Ahsoka across the bond and resisted the urge to smirk in her direction.

Mon Mothma, who Vader singled out over the last few days as the staunchest of the Old Republic loyalist, didn't waste any time. And today, she finally addressed the subject the Rebellion had carefully danced around. His executive powers, which even with the concessions the Empire reluctantly conceded to dwarfed the powers he'd been willing to hand back over to the Senate. Of course, they did. He'd been very deliberate when he spoke with his analyst, intelligence, and Moffs about what powers they would be willing to concede to a democratic, legislative body. Enough for the powers to be meaningful, but not enough that they could ever make any significant moves to alter much Imperial structure. Nor enough power that his office could be superseded if Vader intervened and overrode the decisions they made.

Vader left them with the option to resort to the courts, of course. But not only were the judges on the highest court handpicked by the Emperor, they were also slow, tedious, and more inefficient than the Senate. A problem inherited from the Republic and that wasn't particularly the courts' fault. When there was a government as expansive as the Empire or Old Republic, it was hard for one judiciary panel to get through all the cases that needed to be heard. Especially when some issues were expedited to the front of the line. Vader had an idea how to fix that, but it wasn't a solution he was putting on the table to give the Republic loyalists any advantage against him.

After hours of going back and forth over the powers they wanted him to concede, Mon finally snapped in frustration, "We're not asking you for anything that's unreasonable, and you've stonewalled us at every turn."

"I don't know what you thought these peace conferences were, Senator. I invited you all here in good faith that we could come to an agreement that all of us could live with. Not to allow you to use big stick diplomacy to bully the Empire into reverting back to whatever conjecture of the Republic that you seem to think was the epitome of freedom, justice, and equity."

"As if the Empire was any of those things."

"Something that you won't find me arguing against. Otherwise, I wouldn't have secretly helped your little rebellion all but eradicate the influence of the Hutts and get on the path to eradicating slavery from this galaxy. Even with my proximity to my predecessor putting me at risk. Something that your gilded Republic ignored and failed at when all they had to do was enforce their own laws," Vader shot back. His irritation and stubbornness wasn't even an act now.

The irritation was mutual because Mon shot back, "A hollow accomplishment not even worthy of significant praise when the person spouting them was the one responsible for exacerbating the problem in the first place."

"You'd do well to—"

"I think, Lord Vader," Ahsoka said, cutting into the conversation while tugging at their bond to get Vader's attention, "that we could use a recess. We'll reconvene in a standard hour?"

Vader turned to meet Ahsoka's gaze, fighting the irritation at being cut off. A warning across the bond helped him to realize that as his temper got the best of him, so did his restraint on the dark side.

He loosened his tightly closed fist and turned back to Mon as he corrected petulantly, "_Emperor_ Vader." Then he stood and waved a dismissive hand. "Hour recess," he said before storming out the room. He took the elevator up, not to the penthouse apartment, but to the apartment floor just beneath it. Not sure who would be loyal to him yet, Vader hadn't wanted to expose his family to the senators and moffs that he'd been forced to dine with over the last month (Sabé's idea). Thus, he'd made a residence of the apartment suite directly below the penthouse.

Ahsoka arrived not long afterward.

"How do you stand her?" he snapped, barely giving Ahsoka time to fully step past the greeting area. "Making all those accusations as if her and her merry band of senators weren't complicit in Palpatine's rise or the Clone War."

"Well, she did have a point. You were being pretty…" Ahsoka paused to contemplate her wording. "You were being pretty obstinate in there. Even for you."

"That's not the point," Vader said as he sat on the couch facing the window.

"It's not like we haven't had our share of disagreements this last week."

Ahsoka didn't need to remind him. It had been a while since they'd truly disagreed on anything substantial. They'd fallen into a rhythm in their plot to depose Palpatine after a while, sometimes disagreeing on how to do things but never what needed to be done. Over the last few weeks, they'd gotten into no less than one debate a day over one thing or another. What the purpose of the armies and fleets he controlled would be during peacetime ("How else am I supposed to enforce the rule of the Empire?" "I'm not saying that the Empire can't have enforcers, but not by military invasion and terrorizing systems into submission."). Taking power from the moffs and restoring local policing power to the individual systems ("Because that worked _so_ well during the Republic." "And your moffs have done _such_ a better job at it."). Criminal justice and prison reformation ("So you'd rather just allow us to leave criminals to do as they please. Sure. That's protecting the Imperial people." "People in the criminal and prison system are Imperial people too, and the only reason most of them are there is because of our failure.").

"It doesn't feel personal when it's you," Vader pointed out.

He'd fairly enjoyed going back and forth with her. The dark side rising in him with glee at the challenge of trying to one-up her arguments. Trying to hold back a smirk when he'd cornered her or trying to ignore that she was trying not to grin cheekily at him when she knew she'd won, even if he didn't want to admit it.

If he'd had any doubts about sitting her on the Imperial throne, they'd been erased over the week.

When he didn't recognize a few of the pleasant thoughts about their back and forth as his own, he knew she felt the same.

Ahsoka joined him on the couch and began to open her suit to feed Mé. When she was settled, she said wryly, "Vader. You have to give them something."

"Them? I thought you were on their side?"

"You know very well what I mean. The Republic loyalists. If they were willing to try to work from the inside with Palpatine—"

Vader scoffed and shook his head. Ahsoka noticed.

"—as insane as we both think that was, they might be willing to try to work with you. Compromise and doing things for the sake of helping the most people is what they're all about. After a few years of working together, they might even see you as a competent leader and not care so much. But you have to give a little."

Vader knew well enough this was the sign he needed to stop playing hardball and reveal his true intentions to the peace conference. He had the Republic loyalists right where he needed them to be if Ahsoka was trying to backdoor negotiate for them.

"I think I have an idea."

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Is it a good one? I'm very familiar with your ideas. And usually, it means you're about to make my life harder at some point in the future."

"It's a good one," Vader assured, not even addressing the last part of her statement.

Ahsoka didn't look quelled but said nothing as she turned to tend to Mé. When she was done, she passed Mé to him to straighten out her suit, muttering about the inconvenience of the ten pounds or so that remained from her pregnancy.

"I'm not having any more of your kids," Ahsoka declared. "I think gaining weight was the worst part of this whole thing. After labor. That was the worst."

Vader was of the opinion that—given what he knew about the kind of clothes she liked to wear—she hadn't gained enough weight if not even those closest to her noticed she was pregnant. Even Padmé's closest colleagues had figured it out when she was pregnant, so Padmé had admitted to him when they discussed exposure. Vader had been able to tell after laying eyes on Ahsoka in person that something had been off. But Vader kept that opinion to himself. He and Ahsoka had gone back and forth about this already. Now was not the time to have that argument again.

Ahsoka reached to take Mé from him, but she hadn't gotten very far removing her from his arms before Mé began to fuss. It was normal for her to cry at being unsettled before she was resettled again, though. When she didn't settle in Ahsoka's arms again, though, continuing to fuss despite nothing obviously being wrong with her, Ahsoka handed her back to Vader. She almost immediately settled down again.

"Oh, no," Ahsoka said in dismay. "Mé, little one, you've got to stay with me right now."

Mé disagreed with that, because Vader felt the tapping across his bond with the girl signaling she wanted to play. Already, she was gaining more conscious control of the Force. Vader tapped back, innocent wonder and joy filtering in soft waves through the Force from Mé and a gummy smile lighting up her blue eyes as she stared up at him. He returned the smile, which just caused her to smile and coo more.

"Don't encourage her," Ahsoka chided half-heartedly. Then she sighed. "You know what? I don't even care. It's not like half my side doesn't know we have some kind of history anyway. I'm sure word has been getting around that the General used to be Darth Vader's student. The rumor mill is already trying to put together pieces about Luke and Leia. Will you be okay with her during the rest of the conference? It won't take away from your appearances?"

"Not at all. In fact, it'll give me great entertainment seeing the looks on everyone's faces when I walk into the room with her," Vader replied.

Ahsoka hit him on his free arm, but Vader sensed she was looking forward to that reaction too.

They entered the conference again together, not even bothering with appearances. While a hush didn't fall over the room, there were a few stares of bewilderment sent their way. Ahsoka ignored most and shrugged at Obi-wan's questioning look. Vader just ignored them all as he sat in his seat and continued to play back and forth in the Force with Mé.

This time, one of Vader's assistants called the meeting back into session. Vader made a vague gesture giving the floor to the Rebellion to humor what they had to say.

Mon, undeterred by the fact that Vader was periodically looking down at Mé when she cooed or made happy gurgles in his arms, began.

"We have a proposal for you."

"I certainly hope it's better than the ones you've proposed before," Vader said.

He probably did deserve Ahsoka's mental nudge given that he appeared not to be even giving Mon his full attention.

Mon didn't take the bait as she said, "Perhaps you're not willing to give more of your powers directly to the Senate. But maybe you'd be willing to divide some of your executive power with someone else and create a new office of executive power."

Vader resisted the urge to show his genuine curiosity. Because wasn't that an interesting turn of events that might be in his favor?

"Oh?" he asked.

"You'd get to keep most of your military power, of course, but this person would get to maybe set the tone for the Imperial agenda and help make laws with the Senate."

Vader wondered if the Republic loyalists didn't think he was capable of seeing what they were angling for. Someone to put in place to help make law in the Senate that would undermine his powers as Emperor. Maybe even try to dismantle the Empire completely. Something that the Imperials, both Palpatine and New Imperial era enthusiasts, would not have. They'd find a way to back another army, another rebellion with goals strictly aligned with the ideas of an Empire. And then they'd have a war totally out of anyone's control on their hands. Not that the Republic loyalists could see that through their blind championship of a government based solely on democratic processes. And they thought _he_ was ill-suited for the role of emperor and politics.

Even still, the Republic loyalists were practically stringing themselves up in the trap he'd been laying all week to get to this point. They wouldn't even have an argument to stand on when they realized their terrible mistake.

Vader looked up from Mé and pretended to consider the proposal before asking, "And could I retain some level of veto power?"

To her credit, Ahsoka immediately recognized that something was up. She turned to look at Vader with her brow furrowed, confusion and suspicion coming across the bond in askance.

Mon paused before answering, "That depends on what you mean by some level of veto power. But perhaps you could."

"And I'm assuming you'd prefer someone from your alliance, correct? Someone to smooth out the playing field and the interests of both sides of our conflict?"

"Yes," Mon said tersely, clearly recognizing Vader was angling for something, that this might be some kind of trap. But she couldn't take it back now.

"Being that I'd obviously have to hand over part of my power and work closely with this… figure, it's reasonable that I'd have to approve of this person, even if grudgingly, right?"

He sensed the moment Ahsoka knew very concretely that this was some kind of trap. She just wasn't sure what yet. Ahsoka, for the most part, was not one that was slow on the uptake. But that Jedi humbleness she'd never managed to let go meant it never occurred to her that Vader had a lot more in store for her that just some kind of unofficial advisory position.

"Lord Vader," she spoke up.

Vader ignored her again. So did Mon. She wasn't empress _yet_. He still had the most control over these proceedings. That's what Ahsoka got for leaving most of the bargaining and negotiations to the rest of her High Command. For trusting their sound judgment because she felt she didn't have the experience.

"That's reasonable, we suppose. So long as we can both agree on the candidate."

Vader didn't bother keeping the dark side restrained as Mon fell for his trap. Hook, line, and sinker. He hadn't even had to push and argue her into it.

"Fine."

Shock filled the atmosphere. But from Ahsoka, who knew him all too well, was the feeling they'd been had. Yet she still hadn't figured out his intentions for her.

"It seems your loyalist party and I, on behalf of the Empire, were thinking along the same wavelength. I already know the person I'd like to approve for the role."

It was the smirk that he couldn't resist that probably gave him away to Ahsoka. Because that was the moment he sensed realization dawn on her.

"Vader!" she all but shouted, forgetting propriety and any remaining semblance that their relationship was strictly professional.

"I think General Tano would make a fine Empress."

The whole room erupted, but not even that was enough to completely drown out the vicious string of swearing from Ahsoka across the room. She stood to her feet with her hands on hips, fire in her eyes, lekku flushing vibrantly with anger.

"You planned this, you conniving, manipulative Sith," she accused.

"Now, now, Ahsoka," Vader said patronizingly. "Not so loud. You'll wake the baby."

Indeed, Mé had fallen asleep and was purring softly in his arms. Ahsoka didn't seem to care.

"I refuse."

"If your rebellion thinks I'm ill-suited to rule, that's fine with me. I'm not offended. Personally, I have no interest in certain aspects of ruling. But if I'm going to give over my power, you are the only one worth giving it to."

"The only one worth giving it to? You do realize I'm only a general. Not a politician. I can name a dozen people better."

"Only a general? Not a politician? I was under the impression that you were the leader of the Rebel Alliance… or have I been so misled?"

Ahsoka briefly averted her gaze. "No. You haven't. But—"

"This was your alliance's proposal," Vader said. A reminder that giving her passive approval to her High Command to negotiate with the Empire meant that they spoke for her. "Surely you don't mean to take back the Alliance's word so soon?"

"I…" Ahsoka made a growling noise as her fists clenched on her hips. Then she said, practically snarled, "_No_."

"Then it is settled."

"It is not settled! That was supposed to be a good-faith negotiation, but you planned this from the beginning."

Vader ignored her argument. "I'll give up part of my executive powers to a leader of the alliance. The only one I'll approve is General Tano."

"Anakin Skywalker!"

Vader resisted the urge to laugh. Ahsoka was _furious_ if she was using that name. Her Force signature flared so vibrantly that Vader felt the need to shield Mé just in case it was too much for her.

"I think you all need time to go over the details of this proposition. Session adjourned for the day. We'll reconvene at a later date," Vader declared.

Ahsoka wasted no time practically stomping from the room. She didn't even hesitate at the fact that he still had Mé with him. Vader guessed he was on baby duty until she calmed down.

* * *

**AN: **Vader and Ahsoka can't help acting like themselves. And they are far from subtle. Likely worse than Anakin and Padmé.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, favorite, and follow please! I appreciate all the support and insights.


	85. Counterproposal

**Chapter Eighty-Five: Counterproposal**

Vader heard Ahsoka arrive back at the apartment hours after his declaration that she was the only person he'd give any of his executive power. When she didn't immediately come to their room, he went to see what was keeping her. He found her looking at the evening view in front of the large reinforced glass window that covered the wall in the public sitting area.

"You're a piece of work. You know that?" Ahsoka asked, sensing him headed to join her despite his silent steps.

"So I've been told," Vader teased as he stood next to her and gazed at the sight of the Imperial Palace in the distance. The Former Jedi Temple.

Ahsoka had unequivocally informed him weeks ago that she hoped he didn't plan on taking residence there as emperor because she wouldn't be. Neither would the children, she'd added. Vader had no intention of arguing with her. Though the dark rot of Palpatine's presence was slowly leaving the planet and the palace, the former sacred temple still felt wrong. Vader didn't want to subject _himself_ to that, let alone force Ahsoka and the children to.

"I can't be an empress. I'm not a politician. I'm a freedom fighter at best."

The irritation and indignation that had been in her entire demeanor when she tried to argue with him about it before were gone. At least, enough to have thought this through and come up with reasons to convince him that his idea was a bad one.

Vader would take them all in stride.

"Maybe a freedom fighter is what this galaxy needs. Not a politician," Vader said in a quiet tone to mitigate some of the rasp in his voice. He hadn't realized how dependent his vocal cords had gotten on the modulator and vocoder until he'd been forced into talking in these conferences all day without the help of his suit.

"Anakin," Ahsoka sighed.

She sounded tired. Vader didn't blame her. It had been a long week. A long month and a half and some days, actually. He'd save her the trouble and just explain his reasoning.

"Hear me out."

"I'm listening."

"I'm not just picking you because I think you'll be on my side in everything. In fact, I foresee endless clashing between us about how to effectively rule." He fought the smile tugging at his lips at the thought of their future clashes. If their back and forths over the last week and a half of this conference were anything to go by, there would never be a dull moment.

Through the reflection in the glass, he saw Ahsoka roll her eyes, lips twitching like she was trying to fight a smile. Across the bond, he even sensed something like anticipation from her. She'd gotten just as much excitement and pleasure out their conflict throughout this partnership as he had—despite how exasperating it had been—though she would never admit it. While his intention had been to give her just about all the power of the executive office and only retain power as Supreme Commander of the Imperial fleet, the continuation of their rivalry excited him.

"I choose you," Vader continued, "because I trust you to always try to do the right thing. To know that you'll compromise only when possible and when it doesn't violate the core values of freedom, justice, and what's right even if it's difficult. I can at least admit that I've proven I don't exactly know how to do that."

"Any of the high ranking members of the Alliance could do that."

Vader didn't believe that. But being totally combative and inflexible with Ahsoka had never gotten him anywhere. Not efficiently.

"From a certain point of view, perhaps. But you were the one in there that fought against lines and provisions of the revised Imperial constitution that would suppress the voices of the people and would also hinder the ability to efficiently rule them. You gave voice to the slaves and downtrodden in the Outer Rim, who you inspired to stand up and fight back, which got us control of the hyperspace lanes in the Outer Rim." Vader then added in a softer tone, "It was almost like listening to Padmé in there."

It didn't occur to him until afterward that she could take that to mean that he saw her as a replacement or stand-in for Padmé. He didn't. Though perhaps he'd never made that clear. However, before he could decide whether he might need to clarify that, he sensed something like amusement from her across the bond. He wasn't sure why, but she apparently hadn't taken it the wrong way.

Vader continued, "Not just that, though. The bureaucrats and people who've held power for way too long might not like you, but you've got the people's trust. They know who you are. You fought next to them on the battlefield and risked your life for them and the ideas you instilled in them. If we want them to trust this new era of the Empire, if we want them to trust someone to help rule them, they need to see someone they can know, trust, and relate to at the head. That's none of the Alliance members or the senators and certainly not the moffs. That's not even me anymore. I betrayed them when I helped Sidious come to power even though I helped overthrow him. Our best chance at this and not going to war again is you. You know it as well as I do. The Force even agrees."

"You had a vision," Ahsoka stated.

"Yes." Not really. He hadn't been able to see her when he'd prodded the Force about her place in the Empire in recent years. But he was beginning to suspect that scene of her the Force gave to him just after her trial had been an indication of this future.

Before she could chide him, because they both knew his history with visions, Vader said, "I meditated on it. I think this is a good choice for the here and now and the immediate future too. And if it also brings my vision into fruition, well…" Vader trailed off. When Ahsoka didn't say anything, he kept going. "And think. It'll also help improve the human and non-human relationships and combat the anti-nonhuman agenda that Sidious championed. A togruta empress. Even in the Republic, it had been a while since there was a non-human chancellor."

Ahsoka didn't say anything, but Vader sensed that she was considering his words.

Finally, she said, "There's a lot of people who aren't going to like that."

Vader shrugged. "What do I care? It makes sense. I get to do what I do best at the helm of the army. The Alliance can stop sweating about my future awful rule, and the Senate gets some of their power back with you at the helm to make sure it doesn't devolve into the inefficient squabbling of the Republic where people's self-interests and their credits ruled the agenda."

"And what do I get out of all this?"

"You get to call yourself empress of the galaxy all at the ripe old age of twenty-eight." At least, he thought she'd turned twenty-eight by now. Neither of them kept up with their birthdays. For her, a habit from her Jedi days. For him, not just a habit from his Jedi days that carried over when he became a Sith, but also from Tatooine. It had been wise back on his homeworld to be flexible about one's birthday. He was just sure that her birthday came a couple of months before his. "Quite the accomplishment if you ask me."

"You know I'm never going to be that ruler that sits in the Senate debating all day and trusts other people to inform me about what's going on?"

He smirked. She was coming around already. At this rate, he'd have her agreeing to her new position by the end of the evening.

"Oh, I know. I'll have to show you the designs for the luxury Imperial cruiser that will be your flagship."

Ahsoka's brow furrowed. "How long have you planned to make me the empress?"

"I've flirted with the idea for a couple of years. Long before we were anything other than intimately close friends," he said before she could point out the obvious. "I'm simply far more effective and comfortable handling military affairs than state ones."

Ahsoka crossed her arms and turned to look at him before saying, "Suppose I do this. Suppose I become empress. Could I ask for something in exchange?"

He turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. He supposed that was fair.

"I'm listening."

"Marry me."

Vader couldn't stop his surprise from vibrating across their bond. He really needed to give up thinking that he had Ahsoka completely figured out. Somehow, she always found new and creative ways to surprise him.

"Relax," Ahsoka said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "It has nothing to do with some misguided desire for you to prove your devotion to me or something. Nor is it convenience. There's nothing you could give me in a marriage that you haven't already given me. Even without being empress, I have little to no benefit from a marriage to you, despite you being the most powerful man in the galaxy right now."

That might have all been true.

Still.

"Great to know how little you need me."

"Don't be so sour. You know what I mean."

"Then why demand it?"

"It's politics, my old friend," Ahsoka said, poking him in the chest. "This is a great time of uncertainty for the people. They don't know what's going on. Whether things will just be as bad as they were with Sidious in power or if they're just going to be much worse. They dare not hope for better. But a marriage? A state marriage? That will give them hope, distract them, and appeal to people's traditional sensibilities. Show that we value family in this new era of the Empire and plan to make it a priority. It will also help prove that we'll be making it a priority to do away with Sidious' anti-nonhuman agenda."

"You becoming empress will do that just as well."

"Maybe. But our marriage will bring around those unconvinced by it. And it'll help your image and reputation among the Empire. Especially if we make it a grand state affair because surely the empress who the people trust so much wouldn't willingly marry someone who was only capable of evil."

A grin formed on her face, and Vader sensed that she was looking forward to putting him through such a torture.

He narrowed his eyes and said, "This has nothing to do with politics. Or my image. This is petty revenge."

"I actually did discuss with Mon and Bail over how to make you more… palatable to the broader public. Though I didn't specifically suggest marrying you." She paused, looking up to the side in contemplation before adding, "That said, it is partly revenge."

Vader got the distinct feeling that there was something Ahsoka wasn't telling him. That there was a lot more to her sudden request than she was letting on. It had been a long day, though, and he didn't feel like trying to tease it out of her. Especially if she'd gone through so much trouble to give an alternative reason.

"Revenge isn't the way of the Jedi."

"Family isn't the way of the Sith, but you've got children. So here we are," Ahsoka said with a shrug.

"No."

Not that he was unwilling to marry her. He would if that was what she wanted. They'd never discussed it. Vader hadn't been sure they'd get the chance to. He hadn't been sure their relationship wouldn't fizzle out on its own in the months they'd been apart, and they'd just go back to their complicated friendship. But he wouldn't marry her like this.

Ahsoka continued to insist.

"_Yes_. Maybe we could even get Obi-wan to officiate. Get the rest of the Jedi sympathizers on our side," Ahsoka joked.

Vader held back a snort. She was trying to goad him into irritation now. She had to be. Obi-wan? Officiate? Even if he did agree to this insanity, he wouldn't agree to _that_.

Before Vader could outright refuse, Ahsoka went on. "Look. If I have to deal with the headache of being empress for years until one of those sleeping children comes of age to rule and takes over, so I don't have to, then you can deal with a couple of months leading up to our grand state wedding and the day of for the sake of peace in the galaxy."

She poked him in the chest again to punctuate her point, and he rolled his eyes at her. If she was serious about this, and he hoped she wasn't, then forget making the transfer of power that would make her Empress painless. Sabé would complain about him giving her yet another task, but one thing he knew about the Naboo was that they enjoyed throwing a celebration. And they knew how to do it with just enough opulence to not be gaudy while being extremely tasteful. Ahsoka would hate every minute of it, and he'd enjoy every minute of putting her through it. That was if he really wasn't able to talk her out of this idea.

"We'll continue this discussion tomorrow when we reconvene about the constitution and the structure of the government with the Alliance and Imperial leaders," Vader said, turning back to the window.

Ahsoka did the same with a small smile.

"I look forward to it, my heart," she said.

They ended up not officially reconvening the next day. But that didn't mean, unofficially, Ahsoka didn't invite the members of her High Command, including Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, over to discuss with Vader how they would proceed. That was just a formal way of saying they were going to try to get him to change his mind about all this. Ahsoka suggested he invite some of his own high-ranking officers, intelligence, and politicians, but Vader dismissed it. He let those more politically minded speak for him and the Empire on things of lesser matters. On this issue, though, only his opinion mattered. If he declared Ahsoka the empress, they would follow, and most would keep their doubts to themselves.

Their conversations over glasses of sparkling wine went more or less the same as his discussion with Ahsoka went the evening before. But without the marriage proposal. Finally, Vader became fed up with all the back and forth and subtle jabs. He hadn't had a good night's sleep in years, but somehow it had gotten worse in the last few weeks. He was dealing with the peace conference negotiations; working to keep the Empire stable; helping take care of a newborn at night when he might otherwise get a little rest. To say that his patience was running thin for this nonsense was an understatement. So, he snapped the question that he probably should have asked a long time ago.

"What the kriff were you all's plans after the war if you'd actually beat the Empire if not to make her the next leader of your new kriffing government?"

The question took the whole room by surprise. By surprise because he'd asked (or the way he'd asked) and not because they hadn't thought about it, Vader hoped.

"She's been the one working behind the scenes to get your movement off the ground, regardless of whether or not you like her methods. She's the face of your movement. She reaches out to and talks to those who want to be part of it. She directed your military. Who else did you plan to make your first official government leader if you had taken down the Empire?"

Vader wasn't unaware of some of the politics of the Rebellion. Ahsoka didn't complain about it often, but he did know that she'd frequently clashed with High Command over her unorthodox ways. The way she repeatedly challenged the status quo that even the noblest of them upheld. The way she didn't hold her punches—both proverbial and actual—for anyone. They might not have wanted her to be the leader of their new government, whatever they'd thought it would be. But surely even _they—_in all their Republic loyalist rhetoric and dedication to a purely democratic government—had seen that the best way to move forward was making Ahsoka the top official. The person people were most familiar with and knew the most. At least until they could publicize a few more faces. Mon seemed to be the favorite.

Finally, Ahsoka said, "We hadn't gotten around to officially talking about it yet. We didn't expect this to all end so soon."

It wasn't a lie, for certain. But the Force told him that wasn't the entire story, and the silence of the rest of her allies was telling.

"Maybe not officially discussed, but you had to have an unofficial plan. You're all politicians and strategists. You can't have been so stupid—"

"Vader."

"—that you planned on making a virtual stranger to the galaxy your top official in an unstable post-war galaxy. You had to have at least planned on making her interim Chancellor or President or something."

Ahsoka began to say something, probably to dismiss the entire conversation and get back on point, but she paused. Body turning slightly in the direction of the hall past the kitchen and dining area. In the next moment, the monitor sitting a little ways off on the marble fireplace mantel began to crackle with Mé's whimpers.

Vader would have used the excuse to get away if not for the opportunity this gave him.

"She's probably hungry," Vader commented.

"Probably," Ahsoka said as she went to cut off the monitor, seeming all too eager to get away herself.

"Don't hurry. We'll wrap things up here," Vader said.

Ahsoka paused and turned back to give him a warning glance before leaving. When he was sure she was gone, Vader turned to the rest of her High Command with his arms crossed.

"Let's settle this once and for all," he decided. He didn't give them a chance to speak. "When you dreamed of a free galaxy, for you, that meant the obliteration of the Empire and a reversion back to a completely democratic Republic. The last thing you wanted was to be working with the Empire. I sympathize. If it weren't for Ahsoka and with the armies under my control, the end of this conflict would have meant the obliteration of your Rebellion. But that's not happening. So let's both temper our expectations and talk straight. You didn't like it, but you had every intention of making her your head of state when everything was over. What changed?"

"You is what," said General Dodonna, one of Ahsoka's High Generals and a traitor to the Empire.

"Oh?"

Mon glanced at Dodonna and began to speak, but Bail set a hand on her own to stop her.

Once he'd placed his hand back in his lap, Bail said, "With all due respect, that was before we were made aware that all this time, Ahsoka's sympathies more strongly lay with you and the Empire."

Vader frowned at that. Ahsoka's sympathies lay with him and the Empire no more than it had eight years ago when they came up with this plan. Well, perhaps a little more, all things considered. But her politics hadn't changed much over the years. She'd always been middle ground when it came to the Republic and the Empire, having been burned by both. No one on her High Command could be blind to the fact that her war declaration said nothing about restoring the Republic. If anything, it was his politics that had changed over the years. He was a lot more Imperial than Ahsoka was by lightyears, but not as extreme as he'd been in his youth. He understood that _some _democratic processes needed to remain and that the star systems needed to retain _some _autonomy. But Ahsoka had been consistent in many of her stances. Vader would know. They infuriated him to no end.

The thought suddenly struck Vader that, of course, he would know that. Even when their relationship was at its worst, Ahsoka had never hidden her true thoughts from him. But she had hidden them from everyone else. For good reasons. To protect herself. The twins. Him. But for the Rebellion, everything suddenly changed. Palpatine was dead, Vader extended a truce, and they were being told that their worst enemy had actually been their ally _and_ romantically involved with their leader. If it hadn't been clear before yesterday, it was also apparent that their enemy was the father of the child said leader hadn't disclosed she was pregnant with. Ahsoka hadn't changed. She'd made good on her promise. But in light of new revelations, everything had been recontextualized.

Vader resisted the urge to cringe. When boiled down to that, even _he_ could see how that could shake High Command's faith in Ahsoka. But even though he might understand it, that didn't mean they weren't wrong.

Finally, Vader replied, "So what? You wouldn't even be here having this conversation without her. Perhaps she wasn't totally transparent about her personal life, but she never let that get in the way of leading you. She's led you and stood between you and danger every step of your way here. Even when I was the danger. She's more than proven herself to you. More than that, she's proven herself to the galaxy. She's the only one who hasn't let them down yet, which is more than can be said of anyone in this room." Vader included himself in that whether the Rebel Alliance knew it or not. "She's not just our best chance at another thousand years of peace. She's our _only_ chance." Vader paused to make sure Ahsoka was still occupied before he continued. "So here's what it's going to be. I'll hand over part of my executive power to her. She'll be the first galactic empress. You get to make sure I no longer have the majority of the political clout, and I get what I want."

"And what is it that you want?" Mon asked carefully.

"If that's not clear, then perhaps I give you far too much credit, and I give you little as it is," Vader stated dryly. "Regardless, either get with the program or don't. But make no mistake. If you betray her, if you try to oust her or undermine her in any way, shape, or form, if you decide to expand your crusade against me to her out of your own spite and selfishness, I'll start my own war against you. You will be certain to lose it, and it will not end until I have obliterated every trace of your betrayal."

Vader stood. "I'm done here. You can squabble over this ultimatum elsewhere."

He turned to the maiden, who was silently standing in the shadows of the foyer.

"Escort them out for me, will you?" he asked her.

He barely waited for her to nod before going to find Ahsoka, already lying Mé back down in her bassinet.

"You're done already?" she asked.

"There wasn't a lot left to say," Vader said, tossing off his cape and beginning to unclasp his gloves.

Silence filled the space in the room, a silence Vader didn't feel the need to break. But he got the feeling Ahsoka did.

He was proven right when she said, "You didn't have to say those things, you know."

He looked up at her and said, "What—"

He stopped at the sight of the baby monitor in her hand.

"I unmuted the sound from the other end just to make sure you didn't decide to kill anyone while I was gone," she joked.

"I only threatened to eliminate anyone who decided to betray you. Not the entire Rebellion."

"I'm not talking about that. Well, I am. But not specifically. That's actually progress for you. I'm talking about…" She paused to collect her words. "I don't need you standing up to people for me. I could have dealt with High Command. They mean well. This has just been a lot for everyone."

"You could have. Now you don't have to."

Ahsoka didn't say anything. Just climbed onto the side of the bed closest to the bassinet. Vader joined her after clicking off the lights. She shifted close to him and threw a leg over his hip. It wasn't an invitation for anything more. Both of them were too exhausted, and Mé would probably be up again soon. But just the close contact was soothing and helped them both release pent up tension.

"If I agree to this whole… empress thing," Ahsoka began.

Two and a half of Imperial Center's moons streamed enough light into the room that Vader saw the wry look she gave him.

She continued, "Do I have to be called empress? Can we call it something else?"

"You can call yourself general kriffing supreme of the galaxy, for all I care, as long as you do it." Then, remembering her proposal from the previous night, he added, "But I won't marry you. Not for politics. I will if that's what you really want. If you really don't mind being forever associated with me."

Vader gave her time to think it over. He wouldn't care one way or another if she took it back. He'd understand it. Because for all that their relationship was no secret to those who knew them personally, it was still an uncertainty to those who didn't. Even though she'd come clean to High Command, Vader could tell they weren't sure how concrete the parameters of their relationship were. Like they were waiting for them to inevitably fall apart because there was no way someone as kind as Ahsoka could be with someone as cruel as Vader long term. The Imperials just knew not to ask, but they also wondered.

Getting married would remove all that uncertainty, make it clear where Ahsoka stood, and probably make her allies more untrusting of and angry with her for a while. It would also put the spotlight on their relationship for the entire galaxy to see. To make a scandal out of based on the way the media kept pushing what they could get away with now that Vader had lifted Palpatine's harsher censoring laws. Tedious as it was, there was a degree of safety and shielding behind keeping their relationship somewhat secret and shrouded in a cloud of uncertainty.

Ahsoka replied, "I don't want _us_ to be a secret. I'm tired of secrets. What better way to get rid of that secret than to make it official with a public engagement and a marriage?"

And though he would have understood if she took it back, there was a part of Vader that was relieved.

He smirked and said, "I guess we're getting married then."

Ahsoka raised an eye marking and said, "I guess we are."

* * *

**AN: **I don't have much to say about this except that with the first part of this, the dialogue is copy and pasted from Force Distortion but the introspection and narration is new because in Force Distortion, this was from Ahsoka's pov. Also, like when I wrote Ahsoka mulling over whether she'd go through with her pregnancy, I wanted the reason for the two of them to get married to be personal to them. I mean, generally people get married for the same few reasons. But like Ahsoka says in this chapter. Neither one of them is going anywhere. At the very very least, they would always be some kind of platonic partners even if the romance did fizzle out. So in the end, the reason was the reason for a lot of the revelations and uncoverings of the last couple of chapters. They're tired of secrets.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed this midnight update. The last chapter is already edited, proofread and beta'd. I might be persuaded to upload it tomorrow (Wednesday EST time). In the meantime, review, favorite, and follow. I appreciate the support and your insights.


	86. Amidala

**Chapter Eighty-Six: ****Amidala**

Ahsoka thought that with her accepting Vader's proposal to be empress, they'd see the peace conference dwindling to its end. However, that only seemed to bring about more debate on how they would divide said executive power. Not to mention a thousand other things that had to be debated to rework the Imperial constitution. They'd be negotiating for weeks more, it seemed. Maybe months to both her and Vader's dismay.

But Ahsoka thought she'd rather sit through all those meetings than have the confrontation that she'd been putting off for the past few weeks. More than that. The past few years.

Ahsoka leaned against the wall across from the door to a large conference room as the moffs that remained after Palpatine's death and hadn't gone into hiding filed out. Thrawn, who had been smart enough to pledge loyalty to Vader when it was clear that he held all the cards, stopped upon seeing her.

"General Tano. Or do you prefer, Fulcrum?" he asked.

"Either one is fine," Ahsoka answered flatly.

"I have to say that I've been impressed by the tales of your fortitude. It's reflected in the caliber of your generals," he stated.

Ahsoka supposed he was talking about Diya, Barriss, and Rex. One of the first things she asked them was how they managed to defeat Thrawn and get to Imperial Center as fast as they had to help her and Vader. Apparently, after he'd captured them, they led a mutiny. Escaping holding had been easy enough, but it meant nothing without a plan. They broke into Thrawn's office and found the highly classified and confidential order that Palpatine issued a treason accusation against Vader. Knowing that Vader was a legend among the stormtroopers, Rex came up with the plan to play it aloud across the fleet. While Diya handled that, Rex instigated the rioting. When the fighting began to reach its peak, Barriss managed to negotiate Thrawn into defecting because it was either that or lose and end up being tossed out an airlock. Hence, what Palpatine thought were his own reinforcements arriving had actually been reinforcements for Vader and Ahsoka.

That still didn't mean Ahsoka had to like him. Dealing with Thrawn was going to be like dealing with Mandalore. He cared for himself and his people out in the unknown regions first, and he'd adjust with whichever tide best held his people's interest. His people were more or less the same.

Vader, in his full life support suit, walked out the room before Ahsoka could figure out what to make of that weird compliment.

"Lord Vader," Thrawn said with a nod.

"Admiral," Vader said. The question was implied enough. Why was he still here?

"I was just complimenting the prowess of the future empress."

Ahsoka resisted the urge to cringe. She still couldn't believe Vader managed to position her into that. Even though it had been two weeks since she agreed to it, Ahsoka wasn't sure she was ever going to get used to it.

Thrawn nodded once again before leaving.

"Force, I hate him," Ahsoka said, not caring if the chiss was out of range or not.

"And right now, he's more useful to us alive than dead," Vader pointed out. "He hasn't given us a reason to dispose of him yet."

"I guess."

Vader gave her a once over. "You're apprehensive about something."

"Yeah. Just… There's something we need to discuss."

"I'll cancel my next appointment," Vader said with a sound that was probably a sigh through his modulator.

"No need. I am your next appointment." Ahsoka said, making her way into the conference room.

Vader followed her back in silently, though his curiosity and worry came clear across the bond. Ahsoka did nothing to try to ease it.

He pulled up a random seat at the table. Ahsoka deliberately sat across from him, back straight, face firm the same way it would be when she was dealing with High Command or some other important delegate. She wanted him to realize how serious this was. That no amount of banter could deflect away from what she had to go over with him.

Vader seemed to get that. His demeanor changed too.

"What's going on?"

"Take that off first," Ahsoka said, nodding to the mask and helmet. She wanted to look into his face for this.

When the pieces were sitting on the table, Ahsoka got straight to the point.

"We need to talk about you."

"What did I do now?"

"Nothing lately. But everything in the past ten years," Ahsoka said bluntly as she opened her datapad and began to read off the screen. "Nine years ago, Ryloth revolted against the Empire in protest of the exploitation of their people by not only the Empire but the Hutts the Empire was in league with. In the midst of it all, they damaged an Imperial Star destroyer that held both you and Sidious on it. This led to the Free Ryloth Movement Massacre, where you killed all those part of the movement, their prisoners, and an entire village."

"They attacked us first."

"After they suffered brutal exploitation of their planet at the Empire's hands," Ahsoka said. She continued, "Ten years ago, on the moon of Al'doleem, eye-witness reports say they saw you duel another Jedi. You broke a water tank to distract him. He begged you not to take his life in exchange for the city, but you killed him and flooded the entire city to spite him. Also, ten years ago, someone in the Empire, I'm assuming Palpatine, put an expensive bounty on your head to prove a point. For every bounty hunter that attempted to kill you, you killed five Imperial officers, not to mention slaughtered every bounty hunter that came after you. Families included." Ahsoka forced herself to pause to make sure Vader hadn't forgotten to breathe. He was suspiciously still. Physically and in the Force. Their bond scarily muted. Ahsoka kept going. "The Kashyyyk massacres. The Geonosian Genocide. The—"

"I don't need you to list off all my crimes, Ahsoka. I'm very aware of them. Get to the point," he finally said curtly.

His face was stony, and his eyes were deep amber yellow. Ahsoka sensed the dark side rising in Vader, feeding off his tumultuous emotions.

"These aren't just crimes. They're atrocities," Ahsoka corrected. "And are you really aware of them? Are you really aware of what you've done? How many lives you've ruined?"

"Palpatine—"

"Forced you to do it. And if you hadn't, someone else would have. That you were a mercy compared to what others would have done if it wasn't you. Honestly, I don't know how true that is. The only redeeming thing about all this is that you personally didn't condone sexual violence. But everything else? It's there. Every crime at your hands that the Rebellion has cataloged. And I'm pretty sure there are plenty missing," Ahsoka said, sliding the datapad over to him.

Vader didn't look down at it.

Ahsoka sighed, relaxing her façade and reaching across her bond with Vader. He remained silent and closed off.

"Do you regret any of it?" she asked quietly, looking down at the table. "Do you wish you could take any of it back?"

"What does it matter?" he snapped tersely. "I can't."

"That's not the point."

"Then what is?"

"That you deserve to be executed, Vader."

Silence fell. Ahsoka let the gravity of the words settle between them.

"There are a lot of people that don't see you as the lesser of two evils. To them, you were the _only_ evil. You've ruined billions of lives, both directly and indirectly. And killing Palpatine and taking over the Empire yourself in what looks like little more than a selfish power grab does nothing to erase all that. Nothing will. And don't get me wrong. When I said I'd bear the burden of your sins, I meant that. I'm always going to be on your side and defend you. But you've got to give me something to work with. Something to present to the galaxy that makes you worth redeeming."

Because truthfully, Ahsoka wasn't sure what Vader would do once this was all over and he was tried with the real pressures of ruling a galaxy. As much as she knew he had the potential to be kind and someone to look up to, she understood why people doubted her. He'd been terrorizing the galaxy as Vader a lot longer than he'd been the galaxy's hero. Hell, she'd known him as the terror that was Vader a lot longer than she'd known him as the hero and mentor that was Anakin Skywalker. What was to say that none of this had anything to do with Palpatine and that the former Sith Lord hadn't just given him the excuse to show his true colors? Already, he'd threatened the loyalist with more war if they didn't agree to make her empress.

Something came across the bond. Sympathy. Understanding. Disquietude. He'd heard the gist of her thoughts, and he too had his doubts about himself whether he'd admit to them or not. Maybe his reasons for wanting to make her empress weren't so selfish as she assumed. Maybe he also wasn't sure he could be trusted to be emperor on his own without his shortcomings and expansive powers corrupting it.

"So I'm asking," Ahsoka began again, "do you regret any of it? Beyond how it hurt your family and separated you from them? Beyond how you hurt me?"

He remained silent and still for a long time, once again blocking Ahsoka off in the Force. Still, she could see the conflict playing out in his eyes. The way the amber in his eyes receded some, only to darken once more and then recede again. The way the muscles in his jaw twitched and clenched.

"Anakin," Ahsoka implored. "It's just you and I here. There's no pretense you have to maintain right now."

He clenched his right hand, an old nervous tic of his. Finally, he said, "I… I don't know."

It was a better answer than Ahsoka had hoped for. There was a time when he would have tried to find a justification for it. Excused it away as keeping order and stability in the Empire. At least that answer meant he wasn't sure if that was true anymore. It was a start. And maybe without having to play lapdog for Palpatine, without the old man always in Vader's ear, he'd get to a point where he could let go of his pride and safe haven of the dark side enough to admit that maybe he regretted everything. But that was something Vader was going to have to figure out.

He didn't have to do it alone.

"Okay," Ahsoka replied.

"Okay?" Vader asked, narrowing his eyes at her. "What do you mean by that?"

"You can't just get away with what you've done. So I'm not going to let you," Ahsoka said as she used the Force to pull the datapad back to her. She closed out the file of Vader's crimes and opened up another file before sliding it back over. Vader looked down at it this time.

"What's this?"

"Penance," Ahsoka said. "All the things you're going to do to help make up for the damage you've done. And not just you. Everyone. Every place where you or the Empire have wreaked havoc, every place where you've committed crimes, you're going to go back and make amends."

As Vader scrolled through the list, Ahsoka sensed his rage return. Being confronted with his crimes was one thing. Admitting that he wasn't as sure that he didn't regret it as he claimed was another. But having to actually have to go back and face those people when he was still conflicted about it, when he still didn't want to admit he was wrong? Ahsoka had a feeling Vader would choose to face a trial.

"If they want me executed, they'll want me there to help them even less than I would want to be there."

"Well, you're going to have to figure out how to deal with that. Aren't you? _Without_ violence," Ahsoka added.

Vader huffed and slid the datapad back to her.

"Think of it this way. You said it yourself. After everything you've done, you don't deserve any of this. Me, your children, the Empire. But you have it. And you're lucky enough to have the opportunity to make amends. Most people don't get a second chance like that," Ahsoka said. She scrolled to one particular project. She slid the datapad back over. "And you can start with that one."

Vader frowned. "_No_."

"_Yes_."

"I'm a Sith."

"Exactly. The Jedi were your original sin."

They were also the easiest to please, given their teachings about being humble and forgiving and letting go. That was after she invited those that remained and were willing to come, including Yoda, to a clandestine meeting on her cruiser while Vader was otherwise occupied. It had taken some debate, some reassurance that Vader hadn't corrupted her. But eventually, they agreed not to make any moves against Vader. It helped that Ahsoka had once been a Jedi and knew how to use their philosophy against them. It also helped that she had the sympathies of the last of the Jedi High Council, Obi-wan and Yoda, though they too had their reservations. In the end, however, they came to an agreement. Ahsoka would ensure that Vader had no intentions of passing down the Sith teachings. They would not start the Jedi Order anew or interfere in the budding government under her and Vader's rule. The Sith would end with Vader. They would train no new Jedi.

For now.

But many in the galaxy still respected the Jedi despite Palpatine's propaganda against them. It would go a long way to proving Vader's intentions if he publicly led the initiative to turn the former Imperial Palace into a memorial for the Jedi, which would culminate in the official rescission of Order 66 and their charge of treason. Ahsoka also thought it was going to be hilariously entertaining to watch both Vader and the Jedi work together to make this project happen.

"That you know of," Vader finally added quietly.

Ahsoka had made peace a long time ago that Anakin Skywalker had never been the shining beacon of virtue that the galaxy once made him out to be. So it didn't surprise Ahsoka that there might be some other atrocity that happened during the Clone War. But goodness knew they'd all committed an atrocity by participating in that entire debacle.

"Well, whatever it is, better add it to the list," Ahsoka said wryly. She stood to her feet and leaned across the table toward him. "You are going to spend the rest of your life making up for all this. I'm going to spend the rest of my life helping you. And maybe it'll be enough that history will be kind and forgive us one day. Maybe it'll be enough to leave a legacy that our children don't have to be ashamed of."

Ahsoka began to leave the room. She paused halfway.

"Vader."

"Ahsoka."

She turned to look into his now blue eyes.

"If you ever do something like _this_ again, there won't even be the discussion of a trial. I'll kill you myself."

And Force knew if it came to that, it would destroy Ahsoka. Just like it destroyed Padmé.

"And then," Ahsoka added, "I'll turn my lightsaber on myself to save myself the heartbreak."

Ahsoka left the room.

* * *

Almost three months after Palpatine was killed, the peace conference managed to agree on and sign a new Imperial Constitution, which created a new office of executive power. Right after, they signed the treaty that made Ahsoka the new empress. But though that piece of signed legal document might have made it official, that didn't mean Vader was letting Ahsoka off the hook for the formality of her coronation. Even her High Command agreed with him, citing to Ahsoka that the treaty was for legal purposes. The coronation was so the public could recognize it.

Even understanding that, Ahsoka grumbled and complained over the next three weeks through every dress fitting, every decoration approval, every photoshoot that she was forced to sit through, and anything else to do with the entire affair. And Vader was there every step of the way taking sadistic glee in her disgruntlement. If she was going to put him through the torture of a state wedding in a year and the torture of helping the Jedi memorialize their temple, then he would spare no opportunity to torture her the same way.

For now, they were keeping the news of their engagement to themselves. At first, inadvertently because they hadn't thought to mention it to anyone. Then it came up during one of her fittings, and Sabé, Rex, Diya, and (to Vader's annoyance) Obi-wan had been there to overhear them debating about it. Then deliberately because already intelligence reports indicated that the general public was uneasy about the idea of Ahsoka becoming empress. Especially given that some details about their partnership were getting to the public. Nothing concrete. There was no paper trail leading Vader to Ahsoka over the last ten years or vice versa. But the announcement of their engagement would do more damage to her than it would help his image.

Thus, quiet their relationship stayed. Just long enough to put the public at ease. To let them know that she was still on their side. Someone that would always go to task with and could hold her own against Vader even if they were now serving the same government.

That also meant keeping the children out the public eye as much as possible. An easy task, for now. They were mostly confined to the luxury complex that was supposed to be a temporary home but was being prepped to go through renovations to make it the new Imperial Palace.

While Vader understood the reasoning, he still saw little point in all the secrecy and careful release of information. Either way, it would eventually come out that Ahsoka's children all belonged to Vader, that their third had been conceived during the war. The pretense would be obvious if it wasn't already. People had already put together that the two knew each other in the past. And it would only take one brave reporter to really test the looser censorship regulations and remind the public that the two had fought in the war with each other. It would take only a little more investigation, an old Clone War propaganda photo maybe, for someone to realize they'd actually been student and teacher.

Ahsoka shared his sentiments but decided to go with the charade anyway. Vader got the feeling she was enjoying messing with the media and hearing their speculation. He did not share _that_ sentiment with her.

Still, there was an apprehension about all this that lingered, like every being in the Force was collectively holding their breath. It made Vader constantly vigilant of the Force during the coronation. He was grateful for the cover of his mask because he constantly glanced over to where Luke and Leia were, sitting with the Alderaan delegation. For now, they would continue to take advantage of Luke's and Leia's status as wards of the Royal House of Alderaan. Just until they were confident the most dangerous threats were neutralized. Then they'd begin to allow the public to figure out their true status in the Empire.

He then found Mé in the crowd, being looked after by two maidens posing as a couple amongst all the important dignitaries. Periodically, the three and a half-month-old would poke at their bond, and though now was not the time to be distracted, Vader poked back. Better that than the girl exhibit some show of the Force. She was already using it to pull the toys that dangled from her activity gym down into her grasp.

Then Vader did a general sweep of the entire ballroom, seeking any discreet threats before going through the process all over again.

Even with the pacemaker regulating his breathing, Vader didn't feel capable of taking a complete breath until Ahsoka was standing in front of him, until she repeated some solemn vow to take her duties seriously, and until he put on the delicately jeweled headdress that formally made her Empress to the public. Well, empress in spirit. Ahsoka insisted the new executive position be called Amidala.

"_Don't you think that's a little contradictory? Even a violation, all things considered?" _Vader asked when Ahsoka came up with the idea. Not only was the idea of an Empire in direct opposition to the ideals Padmé stood for, but she'd outright rejected it. Vader ignored the traitorous voice in his head that reminded him that so had Ahsoka at one point. That Padmé might have been persuaded if he hadn't let his rage control him. Because hadn't she already been having her doubts about the Senate? Hadn't she already known that the Republic she'd served was on its dying breath?

"_Maybe. But the way I see it, it's a reminder of what our goal should be. So we don't forget what we should be striving towards. One day, many centuries from now, maybe millennia, this galaxy will be ready for what she envisioned. Every person who carries power in her name after me will move toward preparing the galaxy for that to happen,"_ she'd responded. Then she added, _"And until then, this way, she won't be forgotten."_

There was a lot Vader could address in that. The implication that Ahsoka might have a lot more sympathies toward a slightly more democratic government than she let on. That despite that, she understood the galaxy would have to do with a benevolent dictatorship. That one day, the galaxy might be ready for what Padmé had envisioned. Yet, Vader hadn't known what to say despite all the things to address. So he'd said nothing. It was harmless. Those issues were something an emperor and empress far in the future could deal with. Besides, he was long past the overwhelming grief that would have made it unbearable to hear that name.

Vader wasn't the only one that felt like he could breathe. After the coronation was over, it felt like the Force itself had given a collective sigh of relief. That allowed Vader to spend the rest of the after-ceremony celebration much like he used to spend these kinds of events when Palpatine was emperor. Standing in the corner watching the festivities. Specifically, this time, watching as Ahsoka made rounds through the room with her escorts around her. The security was also something she'd complained about, citing that she was more protection for them than they were for her. In response, Vader had Rex increase her guards, and she hadn't complained after, though she'd done a fair amount of glaring and pouting at him. Perhaps it had been overboard, though. Already, he could see that people were in awe of her. For a myriad of reasons. But in awe, nonetheless. Just like he knew they would be.

"Lord Vader."

Vader turned his head to see Bail Organa with Luke, Leia, and Winter trailing behind him, all three with flutes of cider in their hands.

"How did you get your hands on that?" Vader demanded.

Leia and Luke rolled their eyes and chimed, "It's non-alcoholic, Dad."

At them calling him Dad, Vader tilted his head at them and said, "We discussed this. You must—"

"Exercise discretion in any of our meetings. We know. We've been doing this for years," Leia said with a smile that Vader wasn't sure which mother she'd gotten from.

"Besides," Winter said with an impish grin, "if anyone asks, I just wanted to thank you on behalf of Alderaan for ending the Empire's invasion and announcing you and the Amidala's intent to give aid for rebuilding efforts."

"You could have very well told me that at another time, princess," Vader pointed out, trying to feign irritation. Clearly, the children thought he'd failed because they giggled behind their flutes.

"I apologize, Lord Vader," Organa said. "But they insisted."

If he wasn't very well familiar with the way all three children could insist on something when they wanted it, Vader might have indulged in degrading the man. As it was, he refrained from comment. Organa already looked like he'd rather jump out of an airlock than be in Vader's presence for longer than necessary. And though Organa's presence was the least of his sufferings over the years, Vader shared a similar sentiment. At least in the suit, he'd survive it. The only satisfaction that he ever got from Organa's presence was the man's obvious but restrained displeasure that his daughter seemed to adore him so much.

"We were just about to be on our way," Organa added. "Winter was asleep in her chair a few minutes ago."

"I was not, Papa!"

The girl's yawn thereafter made Vader more inclined to believe her father.

"I'll see you at home," Vader finally said with a slight inclination of his head.

The twins beamed at that, despite Vader's show of restraint. He supposed this was the first time they had to leave him but knew he'd follow along soon. In fact, he may have seen them more in the last three months than he'd seen them combined in the last ten years.

As the children left with Organa, Vader took note of the two maidens joining him to leave, one with Mé asleep on her shoulder. Vader tore his gaze away to find Ahsoka again but found she was gone upon a glance around the room. Not sensing anything amiss, he tugged on their bond. Ahsoka immediately opened up to him, flashing an image of where she was. Or, at least, where she was going, considering Vader doubted she could get that far in the span of only a few minutes.

The Imperial Palace was currently closed to all of the public, and Ahsoka herself held strong feelings of contempt for the place. Though, he supposed that was the reason she'd disappeared from her security and come here. They'd never think to look for her here. He'd let them continue to scramble for a while longer before he told them she was secure. If she hadn't already informed someone that she was safe.

He found her on the roof and silently joined her in taking in the night view of their Empire.

Their Empire.

Vader's greatest achievement.

No. Not his greatest achievement.

His greatest achievement was standing next to him. Although he wasn't sure how much credit he could take for it. He'd trained her. Pointed her in the right direction. Been the catalyst for the events that led them here. However, Ahsoka blossomed in ways that even he couldn't have predicted. In ways that were beyond his ability to teach or inspire. Most of what she had become was all her.

"I just needed to get away for a moment," Ahsoka offered as explanation.

"It's fine," Vader said gently. Or tried to. He groaned and discarded the mask and helmet, carelessly tossing it somewhere on the ground. "I've really got to get around to redesigning this damn thing."

"No. What you've really got to get around to is letting your medical team do that respiratory transplant you've been putting off," Ahsoka corrected.

"I'll eventually get to it. But right now, I can't afford to take the time off that the recovery would require. Not to mention rehab."

Ahsoka clicked her tongue. "Excuses."

They fell into one of their companionable silences, content to continue looking over Imperial Cen—Coruscant. They were calling it Coruscant again now. Much of the city was celebrating their new empress. They'd even ensured the people on the levels below had food and drink for the occasion, despite all the troublesome coordination it took. With all their efforts, hopefully, no one would go hungry on the planet this evening. And if they were, it was something Vader was sure Ahsoka would see to fixing soon.

"But what if I can't do it?" Ahsoka asked. "What if I can't be what the galaxy wants and needs me to be?"

The only thing the galaxy wanted from her, for now, was to hold his proverbial leash. Already, Ahsoka proved she had the moxie to do that by setting her personal feelings aside for the sake of what she thought was right. Ahsoka had accused him of many things over the years, never letting him forget his sins. But to look him in the eye and not just lay them in from of him, but to read off his crimes one by one to his face and tell him he deserved to be executed? Vader might have been furious in the moment, but he was belatedly impressed and validated in his decision to hand power over to her. If she could demand that he make amends and then threaten to kill him if he turned back to his darkest ways while knowing what he was capable of and despite what he meant to her, she would fight anyone. There wasn't going to be a dull moment with her as Empress.

"You can," Vader responded simply. There was nothing he would be able to say to convince her. She'd eventually find out for herself.

"I guess." A pause. "So, you're emperor now."

"And you're the empress."

She moved to stand in from of him. Then she wrapped her arms around his chest and leaned her head in his shoulder, reaching across their bond in silent askance. He returned her embrace and opened himself up to the Force for her. Then, she cocooned herself in his dark presence in such a way that if anyone wanted to find her in the Force, she'd be entirely out of their sight. And maybe that was partly why Palpatine hadn't been able to see her coming all these years.

Vader kissed her between her montrals.

"Now what?" she asked.

"You are going to stand before the first senate session in a year next week as the first Galactic Empress."

"And after that?"

He smirked and said, "You're gonna give 'em all hell, my heart."

**End of How to Take an Empire**

**AKA**

**The Making of an Empress**

* * *

It's over. A year after I started writing this and ten months after I started posting. The most ambitious writing project I have ever embarked on. I set out writing it because I really didn't have any inspiration for my original works and was just burnt out. So I wrote Force Distortion for fun. Then people kept asking me about the story of this universe, and I decided to write it.

Never in a million years did I think a story with a rare paring (especially one that's been as controversial and getting a lot of hate lately in the communities for reasons I'm not sure of) like Anisoka/Vadersokawould get as popular as it did. Thanks for all the support. I'll be answering most comments and questions to this chapter and entire story in general. But I'm going to preempt a few questions.

1) "The Making of an Empress" was originally what I wanted this story to be titled. However, I knew there would be people who read this story but hadn't read "Force Distortion," especially when I make clear it could be read on its own. For those people, the title would have been a HUGE spoiler. Hence why I titled it "How to Take an Empire" instead, which might have been more fitting because it's not just about how Ahsoka ascends to one of the most powerful positions in the Empire, it's also about how Vader breaks his programming from Palpatine to do the same on his own terms.

2) Writing and maturing Vader while making him still Vader was one hell of an exercise in thought in execution. I scrapped soooo many lines, rewrote scenes and a lot more trying to teeter that balance. In the end, it wasn't as hard as I thought. 1) Because Vader is not as much of an unthinking, violent brute as fandom makes him to be (make no mistake that he IS, there's just more to him), 2) Because I realized the Vader of canon has no reason to prove to anyone that he's anything more than that so he doesn't, and 3) Because canon Vader has no reason to prove that he's anything more, he never grows beyond the psychosis that he was in on Mustafar.

3) Writing and maturing Ahsoka wasn't as hard as doing the same for Vader. She's pretty much the same Ahsoka who is more or less slightly tempered by motherhood. She's hothead, a little reckless, teasing, says what's on her mind, kind, and never backs down from a challenge. Hence, she was actually more well-suited to become empress without too much work when she's thrown in the situation because it's just an extension of what she's always done. Fight for what she thinks is right. Hence why for the majority of this story, Ahsoka struggles with the right way to deal with Vader is.

4) There are some things left… unsettled would be the word with this story. But tying off every thread with a neat bow is not how life works and also wasn't the point of this story. That said, I will absolutely be returning to this universe. There's Vader and Ahsoka's wedding (that in itself is a ten chapter story), continuing "It'll be Like I Never Left" which is Vader's journey to finding true peace for his past and takes place years after the end of this story. There's Padmé's family on Naboo who don't know about Luke and Leia. And, in general, there's just a lot more to explore in this universe.

5) In addition to the above, I have a much lighter OT3 fic that I'm doing featuring Padmé/Anakin/Ahsoka that takes place in a universe where Anakin didn't turn (Already outlined fourteen chapters and I'm keeping it that way). A story that might be a bunch of shorts that take place between chapter one and two of HtTaE chronicling the fallout of Ahsoka's trial even though she didn't leave. There's also the what if Ahsoka and Anakin which will be a deconstruction of the pairing. In essence, I'll be around. This isn't the last you've seen of me. But...

6) The above said, this is the last work I'll post on this site. I've hated the interfacing and the way it restricts my creative freedom for months now. So if you want to keep up with me and read those stories, you can find me over on archive of our own under the same pen name.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Until next time, LadyDae out.


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